Author's Note:
Hello! It's a second installment! On the next day! A miracle by all accounts. A few notes:
I totally made Riku up. They don't mention the name of the friend Shin defends at his old school in the drama, nor his reaction to being defended. I took some artistic license with that.
A few puns. Kuma's real name is Kumai, but 'Kuma' means 'bear', and since he looks and eats like one, it fits.
Head Teacher/ Vice Principal's name is Sawatari Goro. The word for monkey is 'Saru', so subbing it in for Sawa is calling him Monkey Man. Or Monkey-face. Or Head Monkey, as I call him in here.
You all probably know this, but honorifics (suffixes) added to names indicate status or relationship. '-kun' means an older person addressing a younger person (usually a boy), used frequently between teachers and students. '-chan' is mostly for girls and makes a name cuter, hence why Minami's girlfriend is Ayumi-chan. '-sensei' traditionally means teacher.
The fact that her students give her a nickname without an honorific means they're being a bit rude, as well as treating her like an equal. And that basically sums up 3-D.
Again, I don't own any of this.
Sawada Shin was resting.
He liked laying on the grass and listening to the sounds of the river, the wind, the distant steps of people crossing the bridge. He often left his house early (no one was there but him anyways) and took naps on the hillside. With his eyes closed, he could forget about the real world for a moment. He could imagine he was somewhere far away, far from crowded cities, disappointed dads, terrible teachers, and annoying adults.
"SAWADA-KUN! GOOD MORNING!"
Speak of the devil. Shin cracked opened his eyes and turned toward the noise. There she was, grinning widely and looking like a dork. He sighed and turned away. If she was trying to make friends, yelling at him in the morning wasn't the way to do it.
"Don't be late, kay!" She shouted, then looked at her own watch, panicked, and ran off, obviously late for something. Hypocrite, he thought, then paused as memories from last night, at this same river, came rushing back.
Her punching Kuma. Her speech about being delinquents with pride and dignity. The question came again. Who was she? Why did she do that? What did she want? Shin shook his head and went back to sleep. Even thinking about her was exhausting.
When he finally woke up, he realized he was late, but all the better. It wouldn't do to have her think he actually listened to her or anything. He wandered onto campus and headed toward his classroom. He had just passed the announcement board when he stopped, thought a moment, then backtracked. There, on the ground by the board, as if somehow had hurriedly ripped it off, was a torn and wrinkled paper with her head on some model's body. "I want a man!" the paper declared, along with "Yeah, baby!", "Boing boing!", and "Yankumi Sux!".
Yankumi? He wondered. Ah. Yamiguchi Kumiko. Yan-Kumi. Huh. It fit her somehow. He glanced down at the paper again. That certainly didn't. Shin shuddered a bit. Stupid Noda and his Photoshop. As he continued his walk to his classroom, he saw that Yankumi wasn't the only victim. All the papers in the trash had Vice Principal's head stuck on a monkey. Heh. The similarity between Sarutari (monkey-tari) and Sawatari (his actual name) was too easy for kids in his class to ignore.
He finally sauntered into his class halfway into the period. Yankumi looked up and seemed surprised that he was late.
"Sawada! I told you not to be late." He gave her a glance that asked, 'Yeah, so?', then rolled his eyes and looked away. But when she had turned back to the board, he gave her a thoughtful stare. Maybe today he'd find out that she was just like all the other teachers. Or maybe she'd do something completely unexpected again. It unsettled him a bit to be unable to predict her actions. He could usually get a good read on people, but she seemed to cheerfully dodge all the normal tendencies that adults had. Annoying. But, it was a little interesting too.
"That stupid Head Teacher really ticks me off." Uchi muttered, kicking Minami's desk. "Shall we teach him a lesson?"
The other guys looked up eagerly. "Yeah!"
"Guys, I have the perfect idea!" Noda chimed in. Shin glanced up. It would be Noda's idea.
The conversation turned to how the Head Teacher's car was yellow like a banana, and how it didn't stick out enough, and that it was sad and plain looking and they should decorate it so everyone would know it was Head Monkey's car.
As they all ran for the locker that held all the spray paint, Shin opted out.
"Aw, why not?" Uchi whined.
"I'm tired. I'm going up to the roof." As he found his favorite bench, he couldn't help but guess at what would happen. He used to be great at predicting the future until Yankumi came along. He wondered how she would interrupt the normal process of suspicion and blaming and threats that the Vice Principal had established.
And as Sawatari stormed in and demanded to know who had horrendously disfigured his car, Shin watched with a slight grin as his predictions about what the Vice Principal would say were exactly right. It was also satisfying to see him all riled up. Serves the idiot right.
When the Head Teacher's minion Washio demanded that Yamaguchi-sensei do something about her class, Yankumi also demanded to know if "they got the goods on them."
How many yakuza movies does she watch? Shin wondered, as she hurriedly corrected herself and asked for evidence.
"Yeah! She's right! You need evidence!" Uchi jumped on his desk and shouted. Shin realized with a start as the whole class joined in, that this was the first time they had agreed with a teacher in all three years at this high school. Maybe all the years of school ever.
"The evidence is right there!" The Vice Principal pointed at the drops of paint in the middle of the classroom. The energy deflated as the class realized they were good and caught. Shin grinned. He had also predicted someone tracking paint on the floor. He paused. Did he just hear Yankumi mutter, "You guys should have been more careful"? Whose side was she on anyway? She was a teacher, wasn't she?
And yet, when they refused to say who the culprits were, she acted like she was proud of them or something. "You guys understand duty and compassion, don't you? You do have good sides!"
Weirdo.
"You shouldn't sell out your friends, but the one responsible should have the guts to come forward." There it was again. 'Be delinquents with pride and dignity'.
And yet, when told she had to stay and watch them during detention, she protested with something about having a date. Hah! Her having a date was laughable. Plus, this was the proof Shin needed that she would put herself before her students.
And he was getting annoyed by the way she kept saying 'friends'. Like they were all in kindergarten and were supposed to play nice and be friends because the teacher said so. Like being friends made everything fun and happy. Shin couldn't help but think back to his first year. When he stood up for Riku because they were friends. When the teacher acted like teachers did and refused to apologize or even admit he was wrong for harassing Riku for something he didn't do. When the unfairness of it was too much and he punched the teacher for being a worthless human being who only cared about himself. But the worst part of that memory was after he got expelled. When Riku was waiting for him outside the school office.
"I didn't need your help! I could have managed on my own! Now I look like a pathetic weakling who can't fight his own battles! What do you think, huh? You think you're better than me? Screw you!"
Later, Shin would tell himself that Riku was just feeling hurt and guilty and ashamed and angry and decided to take it out on him. Sometimes he even believed it. But then, as Riku stormed off, all Shin could hear was his own small voice that sounded like a hurt kindergartener. "But I thought we were friends."
"Well, I guessed it can't be helped, since you're all friends." Shin looked up, back in the present, where a teacher was pretending she knew them, pretending that everything was fine because they were all friends.
He stood up. As any movement from him at all was rare, the entire class stopped and turned. Shin looked at her and spoke as deliberately as he could, to get it through her thick skull.
"Friends? Don't use that word so easily." Don't pretend you know us. Don't pretend you're one of us. You're a teacher. You're the enemy. With that, he walked out of that stupid classroom with that stupid teacher.
After skipping the rest of the school day, he walked home with the rest of the guys, minus Minami, who had disappeared to go hang with his new girlfriend. Even hearing about how the teacher stupidly and naively believed that if she let the kids go change, they would come back to help clean Head Monkey's car didn't make Shin feel better. He lagged behind the group with a bitter feeling in his stomach as they tried to figure out how hot Minami's girl was, which is how he happened to see the girl in question.
He saw Minami trying desperately to win a prize from those stupid claw machines. His eyes widened as he saw the girl next to him. She looked familiar, and not a good familiar. Shin thought back. One of the restaurants he went to with Kuma. She was there with someone else. He looked up in shock. She was dating that gang leader from Ara High. Watanabe. Ah, shit. If Watanabe ever found out, Minami was as good as dead.
How could he tell him? He couldn't just walk up and confront him with the girl right there. He swore again as he remember how Minami talked about her. He really liked her. Shin sighed. Maybe he could leave her out of it. Just tell Minami to stop dating her without telling him why.
Yeah. That'll totally work. That night, he tried to come up with a way to save Minami without letting him know that the girl he liked so much was two-timing him with a gang leader. As he walked to school and saw Minami's bruised face, he knew he was too late.
"What happened to you?" Kuma demanded.
"No frickin' idea. I'm on a date with Ayumi-chan, we're having a good time, she gets a text and looks all freaked out and says she has to get home. So she heads out and I head home, when these punks from who knows where show up and start poundin' on me for no frickin' reason. And then Yankumi and the cute teacher and the nurse show up with some cops. The cops chase the punks off, Yankumi tells me run and covers for me, and now my face looks like this! What's Ayumi-chan going to think of me with my handsome face all swollen?"
While the guys started talking about how to track down the punks and what they deserved, Shin sat quietly at his desk. Minami had no idea why he had gotten attacked. He was back to his original problem. And back to the only solution he could think of. It'd hurt Minami even more if he found out his Ayumi-chan was to blame, so Shin would let Minami blame him. Hate him.
"Minami." Shin got his attention, then jerked his head toward the stairs. Best leave before she got here and started asking questions. When they had walked away from the classroom and reached the front steps of the school, Minami asked what the heck was going on.
"Give up on that girl." Shin used the most superior voice he could come up with. It'd be easier to hate him if he acted like he was better than Minami. He knew that from experience
"Huh?" Minami was genuinely confused.
"Got it?" That's it. Sound like a dictator, giving commands to his subordinates.
The reaction was predictable. "It's none of your damn business! Don't you ever tell me what do again!" Nice right hook from someone who was injured. Shin took the hit and waited.
"Got it, you bastard?" Minami shouted, a mockery of Shin's command. He was getting ready to punch Shin again when the P.E. teacher showed up and hauled them both to the office.
"Alright, what's the reason for this fight? Who struck first?" The Vice Principal demanded, stomping back and forth. Just give it a sec, he'll blame me. No surprises from him.
"Hang on a minute!" She stepped in, trying to diffuse the situation. "You both have a reason, right?"
Shin didn't even look at her. Just watch, clueless teacher. Watch and see how normal teachers act.
"I get it. Sawada." Yup, here we go. "If you don't want to be expelled, you better write an apology letter." Head Teacher gave him his most domineering voice. Typical. No proof, no reason for writing a stupid letter except that Sawada was a student and Sawatari was a teacher. What in the world would he even write? I apologize for trying to protect Minami by making him hate me. I apologize that I'm not the perfect little student you think I should be. I apologize that students are always trash and teachers are always right. Yankumi made a small noise of protest, which both of them ignored. Shin glared right back at Head Teacher to show that he wasn't scared, then walked away. See, clueless one? This is how it is. Stop pretending you're different.
Shin stopped by class to grab his bag, and found Yankumi following him.
"You're not going home, are you?"
"There's no way I'm writing an apology letter." I'm not going to play the teacher's stupid little games.
"You don't care if you're expelled?"
"Expelled?" Kuma asked in shock as the rest of the class turned to stare.
"Doesn't matter to me."
"Maybe you don't care, but I do." Yeah, right. "And what about you guys? Do you want to see your friend expelled?"
Before he could get hurt by no one answering, Shin established that he didn't need friends to care if he got expelled. "Don't just throw the word 'friend' around so lightly."
"What are you talking about? A friend is a friend." She looked confused, and Shin saw the little kindergartener he used to be, the little kid thinking that friends were always there for you, that they would sacrifice themselves for you, that you could trust people who said they were your friends. He felt a little sorry for her, and a little jealous, that she somehow made it to adulthood without that illusion shattering. Well, the time had finally come. Make her hate him too. Why not?
"Like 'let's get along because we're all friends?' We're not kids. Don't make me laugh." He looked past her as Minami walked in. Exhibit A, he thought as he turned and left.
"Shin!" Kuma shouted. Good old Kuma.
"Let him go! Even if he gets kicked out, he can still go to another school. He's smart anyway." As Minami's voice faded, Shin knew he had succeeded. Minami hated him. He was that much more alone.
And I don't care. I've always been alone. Doesn't matter to me.
And yet, when Kuma found him asleep in the grass the next morning, and dragged him back to school so he wouldn't get kicked out, he felt a little better that at least someone cared enough to find him. Good old Kuma-bear.
He sat down at the desk and threw his bag on top of the stupid paper meant for his stupid apology letter. When Yankumi came in, he pretended an intense interest in his fingernails. She simply moved his bag and straightened things out before presenting the pencil and paper to him.
"Come on, you've got to write the letter."
"I told you, I'm not doing it."
"You know Kuma's worried about you, right?" Shin looked up. This was another trick. She'd threaten Kuma to blackmail him, or just guilt him into writing it.
"Why don't you write it for his sake?" Then, as if she genuinely meant it, she gave him a concerned look and left. He sat there for a while, thinking that it might be better if he didn't have friends. At the rate he was going, he wouldn't have any left by the year's end. And he didn't even know if getting Minami to hate him got him out of danger from those Ara High guys.
His phone rang. Speaking of…
"Now I understand what you meant. I'm sorry. Just wanted to let you know." Then Minami hung up.
Shin put the phone down. Then the last phrase hit him. 'Just wanted to let you know'. Like it was a good-bye. Ah, shit.
Jumping out of his seat, he went over the possible locations Minami could be. Someplace isolated, somewhere the Ara High kids were familiar with. The supply yard by the river! He ran as fast as he could, but still arrived after Minami was on the ground.
"Minami!" He yelled, and Minami groaned a bit, which at least reassured Shin he was alive. But with all the kids kicking his ribs and stepping on him, he wouldn't be for long.
"Get your hands off him! Don't touch my friend!" Shin shouted, then charged into the fray. He got some good hits in, but with a dozen guys, he wasn't fighting back for long. They held his arms and took turns punching him in the gut, like the cowards they were. Then they suddenly dropped him.
Great. Now we're both gonna die. Or get hospitalized. Probably kicked out of school. Damn kids. Damn Minami. Damn Minami's girlfriend. Damn Yankumi too, for being so confident about what being friends meant. Damn her for being right. And damn me for knowing it.
The sound of splashing water and angry shouts from the Ara High kids made Shin gather his strength to turn his head and see what was happening. At first, between his blurred vision and the dust in the air, he could only make out a white figure holding a barrel.
Heh. Like a white knight, coming to save us. Wait, that'd make me a damsel in distress! Before Shin's rattled brain could come up with anything weirder, Watanabe barked, "Who the hell are you?"
The dust settled, and Shin was sure he had a concussion or something, because the white knight coming to their rescue looked like Yankumi in her white track suit and glasses.
"Watashi?" Such a delicate, feminine way to say 'I'. It contrasted sharply with the fire in her eyes. "I am their homeroom teacher." Like that was a challenge. Like that should scare the thugs away. Like they were hers, and she was coming to protect her own.
She chucked the barrel at Watanabe and his thugs, causing them to take a step back. Then they all looked at each other and realized what she had said, if not how she said it.
"She said she's a teacher! Ha!" These kids knew what teachers were. How they acted. A teacher would at worst call the cops, or beg them to go away and leave her alone. They didn't need to be afraid of a teacher.
"Sawada. Minami. Go." Yankumi spoke, not taking her eyes off the Ara kids. Shin tried to move, but couldn't get far. "Hurry up and get out of here!"
Working on it, Shin tried to mutter to himself.
"Stop your blabbing!" Watanabe shouted.
"Shut up!" She answered, and this time he heard the steel in her voice. "I'm really pissed right now." If Watanabe knew that was a warning, he didn't show it. He sent one of his goons to head her off.
"You, teacher, back off!"
Yankumi didn't even spare him a glance. Grabbing the hand that was on her collar, she twisted it into a neat joint lock that sent him to the ground, clutching his wrist.
She kept walking. A swift duck and punch took care of the next one. She stepped on the pipe he grabbed for, and still keeping her eyes on Watanabe, told him it was a dangerous toy for a kid.
As the group slowly retreated from this ridiculously calm and dangerous woman in pigtails, Watanabe asked her in a freaked out voice if she was going to fight. Shin understood. He'd be pretty freaked out too if Yankumi kept staring at him like that.
"I'll do anything to protect my students!"
And as he struggled to sit up, Shin realized that it wasn't a scam. Wasn't a trick. She seriously meant it. She would actually do anything to protect them. And he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.
"You guys ready?" She shouted, and with each step forward, the previously invincible high school gang members shrank back, until they finally ran off screaming.
She then turned that same look of calm, confident determination to them. Shin met her eyes, then looked away. It was hard enough admitting to himself that she was completely different from the other teachers, hell, different from anyone he had ever met. That she had won his respect. He certainly wasn't going to admit it to her.
Later, when they had moved to a nearby hillside and she was cleaning Minami up, she spoke.
"So you knew. That Minami's girlfriend was dating two guys at once. That's why you two were fighting?"
It annoyed him that she could figure that out so easily. "So what?" He asked it as a dare, wondering what she would do with it.
And again, she surprised him. She grinned and announced, "You are a good guy after all."
He stared at her a moment, then looked away, oddly embarrassed. It felt weird to have someone, have an adult, think he was a good guy. Although, at 23, she's barely an adult. Just five years older than him. Huh. He wasn't quite sure what to do with this new information.
Suddenly, he heard far off voices shouting, "Yankumi! Shin!"
Shin turned and squinted. It was Kuma, Noda, and Uchi, and it looked like they had raided the sports locker and the janitorial closet in preparation for battle. Wearing shoulder pads and a catcher's mask, and armed with a broom, mop, and a wooden kendo sword, they looked utterly ridiculous. After flailing and falling like the idiots they were, they finally made it to where Yankumi was standing.
Breathing heavily, Uchi told her, "You're an idiot, Yankumi!"
Noda chimed in, "Did you think you could take them on all by yourself?"
She did, Shin thought.
"Shin," Kuma panted, "isn't this bad? Since you're suspended?"
"That doesn't matter." He said reassuringly. He didn't want Kuma to worry about him anymore.
"You idiot! What if you get expelled?" Minami coughed from the other side. Shin couldn't help a tiny grin. Minami cared. They were friends again. Satisfied with only that, he raised his arms and fell back on the grass.
"Don't worry. I won't let that happen." Yankumi's voice rang out. They all looked at her.
She continued, speaking to the ground, like she was embarrassed to tell them something so…personal. "I'll protect you guys no matter what." Shin looked up at her. He knew she meant it, but he still had no idea why.
And then she told them.
"I…I'm your teacher, you know."
They all looked at each other, while Shin looked away. She made it sound so simple. And for her, it was. She was their teacher, and to her, that meant something sacred. It meant she would yell at them when they were noisy, punch them for stealing, rebuke them for acting cowardly, and fight for them when they needed a champion. It meant she cared. And as they heard all of that behind her words, for the first time in most of their lives, the word 'teacher' sounded…good.
After they had returned to school and got patched up by the nurse, Minami went to tell their classmates what had happened, and Shin disappeared. He returned to the school a little later and headed straight for the teachers' room. He could hear voices from inside, and quickly identified the loud, threatening one as the Vice Principal's.
"So then, I assume before he left with this 'stomachache', Sawada wrote his apology letter, right?"
She had covered for him. He wasn't sure why he was surprised. She had just taken down one of the toughest high school gangs with her bare hands, so lying to the Vice Principal would seem like a walk in the park.
"Well that is, he, um," Time for his grand entrance. He slid the door open with a bang.
"Ah, he's come himself. If you can't answer, I'll just ask him." Shin could hear the gloating in his voice. "Sawada! Have you written your apology letter?" It was obvious that he had a whole speech ready. You haven't? Well, then, I have no choice but to expel you! For the good of the school! For the good of the world! For-
Shin dropped his letter (dissertation was more like it) loudly on his desk.
"Wow. You wrote a lot, didn't you?" The Head Teacher murmured in shock as he leafed through the pages. Shin hid a smile. He hoped the teacher read it. It was the most contrite, groveling, expansive and sarcastic pieces he had ever written. He really got into a nice rhythm on page six. He gave the Head Teacher a look to let him know that he hadn't written the letter because of him, then walked away.
As he settled into his desk, he could hardly believe it wasn't even lunchtime yet. Yankumi walked in with a smile and loudly greeted her class. They all paused to look at her. Even if they didn't quite believe the vague details Minami had given them about what she had, they knew something was different.
"Morning!" She repeated brightly, waiting for a response.
And this morning, she got one. It was soft, mumbled, scattered, but her class acknowledged her greeting. She looked at Shin, who met her eyes with Hey, I'm awake. That's all you're getting from me.
She grinned, because a low 'good morning' and an awake Shin meant that today was a good day.
"Well, let's start class."
