I was feeling nice and I thought I'd upload the first chapter. Reviews are loved! Also, on a side note, I LOVE Sesshomaru from Inuyasha, and he will appear in this story (by name only). Every thing will be explained in time, so don't worry!
Summary: When a mysterious young woman with a dark past re-enters the life of one Yamaguchi Kumiko, things begin to get interesting in the lives of her past and current students, as well as in her own. Warning: mention of rape (no details/description), discussion of abuse, maybe an OC death. Told mainly from the point of my OC. Based on the drama.
Disclaimer: Even though I've been wishing for it for Christmas for years, I still cannot call Gokusen my own. I do, however, own the plot of this FANFICTION, and any original characters/situations have come straight from my twisted, Gokusen-obsessed brain.
I was walking along an unfamiliar street, following the directions that Kumiko-san had given me. After she had finally arrived at the coffee shop yesterday, she caught me up on her past and present students and the situations that went with them. When she had told me that Kuma had inherited his father's ramen shop and was still running it, I of course wanted to visit it, which brought me to my present situation. I still wasn't the best at reading kanji, so I didn't realize that I was at the shop until Kuma himself ran into me, literally, knocking me down.
He looked around, then spotted me and looked at me in alarm. "Ah! Gomenazai," he apologized before proceeding to help me to my feet. Apparently he didn't recognize me.
"It's no problem," I assured him. "Although, Kuma, I'm a little hurt that you don't recognize me," I said with a smile. Seeing his confused look, I continued, "That's right. When you last saw me it was about six years ago and I couldn't speak a word of Japanese."
Kuma's eyes shifted from side to side as he tried to make sense of my words, and then they widened in recognition. "Neko-chan?" he murmured. I nodded and he smiled brilliantly. "Neko-chan, you're back!" he exclaimed before grabbing me in a bear hug. Setting me down, he motioned to the door. "Come on inside. I'll get you anything on the house."
As Kuma led me inside, I couldn't help but remember when I had first met him and the other four. I had been twelve at the time.
∻Flashback∻
I didn't know why I was here, but I was grateful.
I had been at home, being beaten again, when the doorbell rang. My parents had left me lying there in pain, and then I heard shouting followed by approaching footsteps. I had looked up from my place on the floor and saw a handsome, silver-haired man in a suit smiling sadly down at me. "You're going to go with me on a little trip, okay?" he had said before picking up my bruised body and carrying me out to his car. We had gone on a plane and landed in where the man told me was Japan. Even though I probably should've been, I wasn't afraid; anyplace was better then there.
The man –he later told me to call him Sesshomaru– then had taken me to a very old-fashioned house, telling me that I would be safe there. He said that he was going back there to try and get my parents to agree to let me live with him. Then, after talking to an old man with a kind face in a language that I didn't understand, Sesshomaru left.
That's how I got to this point. After a few attempts at communicating, I discovered that no one here spoke much English and, since I couldn't speak Japanese, I went in search for a place to sit alone. The old man with the kind face, seemingly understanding what I wanted, pointed me in the direction of a pretty red room upstairs– away from the stares at my bruises, away from the looks of pity that threatened to smother me under their collective weight.
After about an hour or so I heard a new voice downstairs, a woman's, followed by the voice of the kind man who had showed me this room. It was silent for a bit, and then I heard someone coming up the stairs. I turned and saw a pretty young woman. Looking at her I felt reassured, because although her face held sadness –no doubt at my current situation– it was devoid of sympathy or pity.
The woman sat down on the floor by me. In a strained voice, she pointed to herself and said, "Speak… little… English."
I smiled at her and then pointed to myself, saying, "Speak little Japanese."
The woman began to panic. "Speak… slowly… please!"
I smiled an nodded, repeating what I had said at a slower pace.
Before the woman could say anything else, one of the men that I had seen downstairs earlier rushed up the steps. "Ojou," he greeted before handing the woman two books. I realized that they were translation dictionaries.
The woman smiled at the man. "Arigato, Tetsu." I figured that "arigato" meant "thank you".
As the man was getting up to leave, I waved to get his attention. They both looked at me. I pointed to the man and said "Tetsu?" making it a question. When he nodded, I continued, "Um… arigato?" still unsure if I was saying it correctly. But then they both smiled and nodded, and the man, Tetsu, went back downstairs.
Over the next few hours, with the help of the translation books, I learned the woman's name (Kumiko-san, as I would learn to call her), her age, and that she was a teacher. She talked a lot about her students, and really seemed to care for them. I told her my name, Katherine, and my nick-name, Kat, as well as my age and my dreams of becoming a teacher as well. I told her about how I wanted to share my love of knowledge, and she smiled and patted my head.
Eventually, though, it was time for bed. I was adjusting to the time difference rather well, so I got to sleep around the same time as Kumiko-san.
The next morning, because I had slept in her room, I woke up when Kumiko-san was getting ready for work. I had misplaced the translation book, but luckily she remembered the word for "school" and I got her meaning. I was able to help see her off, but on the way back inside I passed a mirror. The bruised were still pretty bad, and they covered most of my body. I decided to hide in the red room for the rest of the day.
Imagine my shock when, hearing Kumiko-san's voice, I had rushed downstairs to greet her and also saw who I assumed were five of her students. They stared. I ran.
Kumiko found me a few minutes later. "They… follow… me!" she said. "They… want… know. Can… I… say?"
I looked at her, then nodded, and she went downstairs. After a few minutes I heard my name being called. I went downstairs and found the five students sitting with Kumiko-san, all with kind smiles on their faces. Kumiko waved me over. "Talk… with… motion… okay?"
I nodded and then turned to face the young men, pointing to myself. "Kat."
The one with the shoulder length black hair and highlights tilted his head to the side. "Cat… neko?" One of the others asked a question and the young man turned to explain something.
The second one that had spoken, one with shoulder length light brown hair cut in layers, looked at me. "Ah! Neko-chan!"
I just accepted it.
They all introduced themselves: Kuma, Sawada, Minami, Noda, and "Uchi". They ignored my bruises and they came to visit me every day after classes, talking to me through gestures and even teaching me a few words in Japanese.
But my happiness could only last for so long. Two weeks to be exact…
"I have to take you back."
I looked up at Sesshomaru in horror. I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. I couldn't breathe.
"I'm sorry; it's just for right now. I'm going to try and get you out of there as soon as I can."
I wasn't moving, so he picked me up. That's when I started struggling, started screaming. Why? Why was he taking me back to that daily torture? Why wasn't anyone stopping him? Why?
In my turmoil, I barely noticed the five students that I had made friends with over the past two weeks. "Neko-chan?"
"Neko-chan!"
"NEKO-CHAN!"
They asked Kumiko-san what was going on, and what ever her answer was must have been the truth. The last thing I saw as the I was taken away in the car was the five of them chasing after us, looks of horror on their faces.
∻End Flashback∻
I understood why it had been necessary for me to return, now. What's right and what's legal don't always coincide.
As I was lost in my memories, Kuma had come and sit down next to me. "You know," he said, looking out the window, "it's still early in the day." I smiled, finding humor in the fact that he was completely ignoring the fact that I could speak Japanese now. "The guys are all in town, well except for Shin –I mean Sawada. He's in Africa right now doing volunteer work. But anyway, I'm sure they would all be relieved to know that you're okay." He shifted his gaze to me. "We've been really worried ever since you got taken. All we were told was that you had to go back." Kuma sighed and leaned back in his chair. "The five of us figured that you were being taken back to wherever you got all those bruises from. We never were told the whole story."
I sighed and looked out the window. "So, Kumiko-san left it for me to tell them," I thought before turning to Kuma. "Alright, you can call them."
