Disclaimer: Touhou Project belongs to ZUN. I merely own this fan fiction. If I do have Touhou Project, then Sakuya would have appeared on Ten Desires.
- Chapter 2: Backgrounds -
...
"… Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry, was I not clear?" I asked. "I said our homeroom teacher is a "he" instead of a "she" like you addressed."
"… Huh?" Kamishirasawa-sensei looked very confused. "Wait, let me guess… Is your homeroom teacher Morichika-sensei?"
"Yes, it is." I replied.
"But that's just…" Kamishirasawa-sensei put her hand on her chin, looked deep in thought. "Morichika-sensei is a substitute teacher-he is not supposed to be able to be a homeroom teacher."
"He just did."
"I know, I know, Hakurei-san." Kamishirasawa-sensei replied. "When I told you that your homeroom will be a new teacher, I was addressing to Kaku-sensei."
"Who is that?" I asked.
"A new teacher, Kaku Seiga. Unlike Morichika-sensei, she is a permanent teacher. So I thought your homeroom teacher will be her." Kamishirasawa-sensei explained. "… But why him…?"
The classes had ended for today, so I decided to ask Kamishirasawa-sensei about my homeroom teacher. You see, until recently, Kekkai High School is a girls-only school. Even the staffs are supposed to be female. The teachers, janitors, securities, and so on. But my new homeroom teacher is a male. As a Student Council member, I decided to get some answers. Since the history teacher Kamishirasawa Keine was the only one who was in the Faculty Office, I asked her instead of asking the principal.
Kamishirasawa Keine has long, white hair with some blue tint on it. She was wearing a blue business coat and a matching blue skirt. Just like I told you earlier, she's a history teacher. A nice one, too. Her teaching method is nice, but I would have liked her more if she doesn't give head butts to bad students. I assure you, her head butt is seriously painful. However, she is generally considered as a good teacher.
"… I will discuss this with the Yakumo-san when I have the time." Kamishirasawa-sensei said as she put her books and whatnots in her bag.
"Thank you."
-x-
"How's it?" Marisa asked after Reimu went out from the faculty office.
"Kamishirasawa-sensei doesn't know anything about Morichika-sensei being our homeroom teacher." Reimu replied. "She said that Morichika-sensei isn't supposed to be our homeroom teacher as he is just a substitute."
"I figured as much." I commented.
"Then the only way to find out is to ask the principal or the man himself." Marisa pointed out.
"All right, then." Reimu said. "Ran, can you ask your mother about this? I'm sure that she will tell you about this."
"Sure." I replied.
"Marisa, you go ask Morichika-sensei."
"Eh? Me?"
"You know him, right?" I asked.
"Err… sort of." Marisa said in reply. "We are good friends, in fact. I often went to his shop when I was little."
"He opened a shop?" Reimu asked while we started to walk downstairs.
"Yeah. An antique shop." Marisa said. "Until now, I still can't figure out what exactly did he sell because the stuff he sold looked nothing like antiques. More like outright weird items. There was a… uh… a narga… narghile, was it?"
"What's that?" I asked.
"It was shaped like a big pipe or something like that… Seriously, it's hard to describe the shape in words." Marisa explained. "But he said that it's for smoking."
You know, after listening to Marisa's description, I kind of wanted to check out his shop. Maybe he sells some interesting items.
"I'm home."
"Welcome home, Sis!" Chen greeted from the couch in front of the TV.
"Is Mom already home?" I asked while I removed my shoes.
"Yeah. She's upstairs."
I bet she's asleep like a sloth she is, even though it's still somewhere around 6 PM. I went to my room and placed my bag along with my school coat before going to my mom's room. (For your information, all bedrooms are upstairs.)
I knocked on her door twice. Seconds passed without answer.
I knocked louder twice. Again, no answer.
I gave up and kicked the door open. The loud sound made her jump from her bed.
My mom was wearing her sleeping dress already, which is a simple long one-piece violet dress. Her blonde hair was in a mess, showing that she was asleep for some time.
"Good evening." I greeted.
"Good evening…" She paused for a yawn and sitting up. "What's with the door kicking?"
"That's the way I wake you up and get inside your room at the same time." I explained. "Anyway, mom, I want to ask you about the new teacher."
"Ooh, Kaku-sensei? She's a nice person, isn't she?"
"No, no, not her, but Morichika-sensei."
"What about him?"
"Are male teachers allowed in our school?"
"There's no rule that there can't be any."
Of course… wait what?
"There's no rule about it?"
"Nope, not at all."
"Then… Why is he my homeroom teacher?" I asked. "He's a substitute teacher, isn't he?"
"You're right about that." Mom replied. "But I have… other plans, you see."
"Like what?"
"Like making him a supervisor."
"For what?"
"You'll just have to wait and see."
"Then… does that mean he's permanent?"
My mom nodded. I'm not sure that I feel kinda happy or feel disappointed. If he is just a substitute, then when his time is up he will be free… But if he's permanent…
"Mom, Sis, dinner will be ready in a moment…" Chen called from the door. "… and what was that loud noise? I was making dinner and I can't leave them while I go check…"
"I just tripped earlier." I can't tell Chen that I just kicked a door.
"Let's just go downstairs and have dinner, everyone." Mom said as she stood up from the bed and went downstairs with us.
-x-
It was around 9 in the morning. As usual, I was at my shop, Kourindou, reading that day's newspaper while keeping an eye for customers.
Suddenly, my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. It was Keine-san calling. I immediately picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Oh, Rinnosuke-san, are you busy right now?" she asked.
I'm almost always never busy these days, because I did nothing but watch over my shop and read numerous literatures. "No. Is something wrong?"
"To be honest, yes." She replied. "Can you come to Akyuu-san's house right now?"
When she said Akyuu-san, she refers to Hieda Akyuu. Her house is not far from my house. In fact, she can still be called my neighbor. I knew her quite well, too. But I can't leave the shop as-is, so I decided to just close the shop for a while.
"I'll be right there."
"Thanks. I'll explain everything once you get here."
Like I said, Akyuu-san's house is not far from my house. I was able to reach her house in less than 15 minutes, including the time needed to close the shop. I knocked on her house's door, and I was surprised that it was Keine-san who opened the door. She let me in and explained everything.
"You can't be serious." I blurted out.
"Please?" Keine-san pleaded. "Akyuu-san is badly sick, so she can't teach for some days…"
"You don't need to repeat that," I said. "But why me, off all people?"
"Sorry, you're the only one I can think of." Akyuu-san weakly apologized.
I was in Akyuu-san's room. I didn't do anything stupid, considering I'm in a woman's room with two beautiful women. She was lying on her futon, a wet cloth draped on her forehead. Her face slightly reddened due to her fever.
"You majored in Literature, didn't you?" Keine-san asked. "I'm pretty sure you can re-learn the subjects and substitute her for a while."
"I'm not good at teaching."
"I can teach you how to do so."
"I wasn't a good student in college."
"But you got fairly high scores per semester."
"I... uh…" I can't think of more arguments. "I… have a shop to look at?"
"You can close it for the morning." Keine countered again, "You hardly get any customers anyway."
That hurt, but that's the truth.
I lost the argument battle, so I gave in and became a substitute teacher for Akyuu-san.
-x-
"… but Keine-san didn't tell me about the school being a girls-only school." Rinnosuke-san-I mean, Morichika-sensei finished. "What's more surprising is that you're in this school too, Marisa. It's been a while."
"Yeah. Kinda hard to believe since our school hardly had any male teachers until now."
I was inside Morichika-sensei's house that evening. In the lounge, to be exact. His house/shop isn't that far from my house, we're still in the same complex. I haven't visited him again since I entered high school, though. His house/shop isn't that big, either, but it's rather cozy. It is also rather tidy and clean.
"Looks like I can't call you Kourin anymore, huh? With you being my teacher and all…"
"Maybe you can, just outside of school. You have to call me Morichika-sensei to avoid suspicion."
"Yeah…" I trailed off for a moment.
"You used to call me Kourin back then. Speaking of which…" he started. "… How are your parents?"
I knew it. He would ask for my dad. I was in a dilemma of telling the truth or telling sugar-covered lies. I decided on telling the latter.
"They're fine." I replied. "My dad is still kinda grouchy as always."
"Ha ha. Some things never change, indeed."
I looked at the clock and noticed that it's getting late.
"Well, I should be going now." I said while standing up.
After some small talk and exchanges of goodbyes, I went home.
"I'm home."
"You're late." My dad commented without looking away from the newspaper. His hair is short and black. His body is rather large, too. He was still wearing his business coat and whatnots, which means he was home not too long ago.
"I know." I said as I removed my shoes and went to my room. Before I reached the stairs, my dad started to ramble again.
"What were you doing in school? Today is your first day; you're not supposed to come late." He asked. "… Were you messing with 'that' again?"
"... Just a bit." I replied, stopping in my tracks.
"How many times did I tell you?" he asked again, his voice heightened. "Never mess with it anymore! It was a curse!"
"No, it's not!" I fought back. "It's a gift!"
"What kind of gift that blows up everything?" His grip to the newspaper tightened.
"Both of you, stop!" My mom shouted. She has long blonde hair which I inherited. Shorter than my dad, wearing a pair of glasses. Just a typical housewife. After me and my dad calmed down, she continued. "… Honestly, you two are like kids. Often fighting because of different opinions."
My dad didn't answer, his eyes was still glued to the newspaper. Seconds of silence later, he started. "… Marisa."
"What?"
"… If you want to stay in this house, stop immediately."
I didn't say a thing and went to my room.
'If you want to stay in this house, stop immediately' he said. Bah. Like hell I will stop. I have to accept it just the way it is. I can't deny its existence.
It's too late to stop me.
…
…
- Chapter 2: End -
A/N: Hey, there's that new Image Manager feature. Maybe I'll draw something for this fan fiction's cover some time later.
Another note, while this has nothing to do with the story, I wrote this just for practicing my English. There would be an English exam the day after I wrote this. Instead of studying, I spent the day writing this chapter halfway. The result? I got the highest mark in my classroom. Tee hee.
Lastly, the next chapter will be lighter and hopefully longer, don't worry.