Title: Change in the Wind
Author: El Scribe
Rating:PG-13
Spoilers: Not sure yet, cutting to be safe
Summary:This story is an attempt at making the dorama as it stands eventually conform to the spirit of the manga. In other words, a sequel. Six years after Yankumi watched her first class graduate, her grandfather passes on and she's forced to make a final decision to either accept her birthright or follow her dream of being a teacher. Guilt-ridden at the prospect of destroying the livelihood of the friends who are her family, she determines to become the fourth generation head of the Oeda family. No sooner does she make the decision than Head Teacher throws her a loop that will teach her what dreams are all about.
Disclaimers: This is a nonprofit, recreational story, using character that I do not claim are my own.

Change in Wind

Chapter Two

... And the bus rolled by once again.

Kumiko stood panting with her hands on her knees and shook her head. Perhaps it was for the best. For the first time in a long time she didn't feel any eagerness to get to school.

"Long time no see," said a lilting voice, as a short buzz signaled the stop of a well-maintained bicycle beside her.

"Morning, Shinohara-sensei," Kumiko said through a yawn, standing upright and stretching her back a bit to soothe the kink she'd gotten for bending down. "As you can see, not much has changed."

Shinohara smiled serenely. He was always amused by the consistency of Kumiko's unpredictability. It was one of the things he liked most about her. Although at times it could be maddening to a man who wanted to know where he stood with her. There were days when she seemed just about ready to jump into his arms – actually, there had been a couple of times when she literally did just that. And then there were days like today where she seemed to barely register his presence. It was alright, though. He could wait. It had been six years; he was used to it by now.

"Well, I guess I should get to school," groaned Kumiko, confirming his thoughts.

Ordinarily, he would just let her go if she was being distant; it usually meant she was busy with some passionate project. But this was the first time he'd seen her in a week (the longest he'd gone without running into her since the year he and Kashiwagi had been reassigned to the worst precinct in Japan as punishment for associating with a yakuza family) and he didn't want to say goodbye quite this soon.

"Been busy, I take it?" he asked with a smile in his voice. Usually that teasing tone brought a tinge of red to her cheeks. Not today.

"Yes," she said abruptly. Then she blinked and realized how curt she'd sounded. She shook her head in self-reproach. Shinohara-sensei hadn't done anything wrong; there was no reason to take things out on him. She continued more gently. "We just finished the seven-day mourning for my grandfather. He passed on last week."

Shinohara Tomoya, you're the biggest jerk in Japan. The police officer debated pedaling his bike right on into the Sumida River. "I'm so sorry," he said with real regret in his voice.

Kumiko heard it, and believed him. It warmed her heart just a little bit to know that he really cared. On another day such a proof of affection would've lifted her to cloud nine and had her speculating about wedding proposals and first dates – not necessarily in that order. But she just didn't have it in her today.

"Thank you," she said simply, and smiled at him.

Shinohara felt his heart clench. A real smile from Yamaguchi Kumiko was as beautiful as it was rare. Sometimes he thought that Kumiko was so busy being passionate that she didn't get to be happy. But he'd never seen her smile like this before – so genuinely and so sadly. There weren't tears in her eyes, but somehow he felt like he was looking into a fragile pond that could ripple at the slightest touch.

He cleared his throat. "Do you want a ride?"

She hesitated. "No, thanks. I'm not really in such a hurry today."

Shinohara felt his heart sink, and then despised himself for being so selfish. How could he be thinking about having her arms around his waist when she was grieving?

"Alright, if you're sure. If you change your mind down the road, give a shout and I'll turn back."

"Okay, have a good day at work," she replied. She waved at him as he rode away, shouting "Watch your back!"as an afterthought.

The front tire of Shinohara's bicycle swerved, but it was worth it. He wouldn't want her to be hurt by the laughter he was holding in.

"Ya-Ya-Yankumi!" howled a wolfish voice, followed by a chorus of whistles and cat calls.

Yankumi scowled. This year's 3-D was a pack of lechers. But at least they came to class now.

She still remembered the first day of the semester when she'd tried everything to get them to sit in their chairs. She'd given inspirational speeches, joined in on their bawdy conversations, threatened, intimidated, joked, stalked. She even punched a hole straight through one particularly loud-mouthed student's desk, and not one boy paused in his conversation to look at the damage. At the time she'd thought they were going to be her most difficult class ever. Nothing that had ever worked before had even the slightest impact on these kids.

As a last resort, she started to consider a talk she'd had with Fujiyama-sensei their first week of teaching at Shiroken (as Arata High School was called back when Kumiko and Fujiyama-sensei started teaching there, before the school was sold and closed for a year for renovations by the new owners). They'd been discussing Fujiyama's habit of wearing provocative clothing to work, and Fujiyama had sworn that there was no better way to control male students than appealing to their enormous sex-drives.

At the time, Yankumi had written the idea off as underhanded, but after two months rolled by without any progress at all, she was willing to try anything. Knowing their terrible taste, Kumiko had ordered Tetsu, Minoru and Wakamatsu to go out and buy her an outfit to teach in. Overjoyed that she'd given them such a trust, they'd gone all-out, returning home with manufacturer's boxes full of designer clothing that looked suspiciously as if it hadn't ever made it to the retail store it was addressed to.

They hadn't let her down. The next morning - after spending half an hour in the bathroom curled up into a little ball, clutching a pom-pom and shuddering at the memory of the last time she'd tried to look appealing at school - Kumiko had set off to work. No sooner had she opened the door when a silence descended upon the unruly class. She could almost hear a zoom as the boys' eyes went from the curve of her ankles as displayed to advantage by three inch black pumps, to her dark-stockinged legs, lingering at her skintight Italian leather miniskirt and getting so stuck on the crisp, sleeveless white linen blouse that showed the delicate outline of her expensive lace bra that she might as well have left her hair in pigtails and saved her makeup.

From that day forward, she never had a problem with her class again. All she had to do was wear skirts and they were all present every day, rain or shine, sick or well. Fujiyama-sensei still hadn't stopped gloating.

I am a teacher and I'll do anything for my students, she reminded herself between gritted teeth, longing for her jersey and sneakers as she lost balance on her high-heeled shoes and did a face dive into a shrub.

"Yes! I think I saw something!" one of them triumphed, pumping his fist in the air as his classmates pounded his back.

"Tsuruga!" she growled, rising up from the shrub like a flaming demon and somehow towering over her six foot student without growing an inch above her usual five-foot-three.

"Run!" Shouted Matsumoto, the wisest of her students, and the gang of boys fled in all directions (except towards the classroom) leaving their buddy to his fate.

She stalked forward, her fingers itching to grab the ears of the wayward Tsuruga, when a tap on her shoulder turned her around. She forced her battle face into a somehow more frightening smile as she faced Sawatari-sensei, the principal of Arata High, and unfortunately her boss.

"Yes, sensei?" She asked politely.

Sawatari narrowed his eyes. From Yamaguchi-sensei, politeness sounded more insulting than curses.

"You're back, I see." He couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice. "Well, I suppose it would be too much to ask that you attend a staff meeting on your first day back after your little vacation."

Kumiko gritted her teeth. "Vaca--" she closed her eyes and counted to ten. "I was just on my way, Principal. Some of my students needed a little discipline." She shot a whip-glance at Tsuruga who was starting to look more turned on than scared, now that the principal was on the scene and he knew he was safe from bodily harm.

"Yeah, I've been a very bad boy," he cooed, pouting his lips. "I think I'll need a sp--"

Yankumi raised her fist and Tsuruga went running for his life.

"Yamaguchi-sensei," the principal sighed, shaking his head back and forth in weary disapproval. "Every year you come up with some new teaching method to degrade our noble profession. Last year it was organizing a pro-wrestling team and participating yourself, the year before it was gambling on who can go the longest without cigarettes, before that it was..."

"I've always done whatever it takes to reach my students," Yankumi stated, completely without remorse. "If I have to body slam them, sweet talk them, whatever it is, if it's ethical, I'll do it."

"Well, we always did have different definitions of the word ethical."

"Very," she agreed, following the path of his eyes to the opening of her blouse.

Sawatari coughed awkwardly. "Yes, well. Hopefully this will be your last experiment in extreme teaching and next year you can try something completely off the wall – like normal lectures and classroom discipline.

"I... I really don't think so, principal."

Sawatari raised his eyebrows at the uncharacteristic hesitation in her voice. "Wh-"

"Do you have a minute? In your office – I have some business matters to discuss.

"Yes - a minute. I'm very busy, you know."

And he followed her up the stairs to the principal's office with a very bad feeling trailing behind him.

To Be Continued

Notes:

As you can see, this chapter attempts to neutralize the damage of the horrifying second season of Gokusen by explaining all of the inexplicable absences. It's still a couple more chapters before Shin hits the scene, but he's coming.

Hope you enjoyed!