Sooo, another one of my planned chapters I can finally scratch from my to-do list. This time we finally get the chapter about Jun and Hanae I mentioned last time. That being said, I kind of liked the idea more when it was still in my head. I might have not really given my all when I wrote it down, I am afraid. That's because the theme of the chapter was originally another one as Hanae was supposed to ask Jun why her mother and her aunt aren't getting along at which point Jun would have told her a funny story of the past before she was born. That flashback had been supposed to be the highlight, but the chapter would have gotten way too long and confusing, so I scratched that and made it about a different problem of Hanae's. As a result, it might be a bit less funny than what I had originally planned. My bad. I might tell the story of Inori and Mana sometime else, if people are still interested in my episodic chapters for the deleted scenes. You never know with that kind of stuff.
As usual, since I have no beta readers, you will have to take this chapter at face value. It's about 9.2k words long. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Third chapter: Great Teacher Samukawa
Universe: Reclaiming the Throne (ceasefire)
Theme: A Genesis kid's struggle to fit in
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning when Hanae Ouma decided to watch the sky through the window of the Ouma residence's living room, sighing tiredly as she kept watching the passing clouds with quite some longing in her eyes. How nice it would be to be outside on this beautiful and sunny spring day. There was so much she could be doing right now, so many games she could play. The world was hers to explore and pretty much calling her outside with this breathtaking weather. It was practically as if mother nature was begging her to come out and play. And yet Hanae wasn't. You might wonder why that was the case when the answer to that was actually quite straightforward.
The pink haired girl of 6 years narrowed her eyes and looked forward at a certain brunette man standing in front of a holographic projection of a board, going on and on about stuff she really didn't care about. That's right. It was this guy's fault. Thanks to him and his obsession with boring stuff such as mathematics, the Japanese and English language or even geography, she was basically stuck here doing this wretched thing called "studying". She had these sessions with that man every once in a while. Her parents say it's "school", but if you asked Hanae directly, she would rather describe it as hell.
Oh, by the way. The guy's name? It was Samukawa Jun. And he was Hanae's home tutor. The young princess actually very much liked the man. He usually was quite the kindhearted person who would always treat her well. Sometimes he would visit her parents and bring a present for her as well, and sometimes they would even play games together. He was also very smart and would explain things to her if she asked him about it, and he also answered questions her parents sometimes seemed to deny her answers to. Though, there were some things even he didn't tell her sometimes. Even when she tried forcing him with her princess' authority. Being a kid sucked…restrictions everywhere!
Anyway, Jun-sensei was a cool guy and she enjoyed spending time with him. However, that was only the case as long as he wasn't in "teacher-mode".
"Teacher-mode" took the fun and gentle Jun and transformed him into this serious, no bullshit person she so much despised. It wasn't any fun at all. He would become very strict with her, too, despite her being the goddamn princess!
Her head leaned on her hand while she tried to balance her pen perfectly on her lips, right under her nose, visibly bored out of her mind. Just look at this guy, going on and on about the usefulness of math here and economics there…bla, bla, bla, who gave a damn? She wanted to have fun. Math wasn't fun at all. One day, when she would become queen, she would make sure to abolish math and school as a whole. Yeah. That would teach those boring mathematicians. She smirked mischievously. Eat it, Pythagoras! Your theorem got nothing on her!
That was the moment she felt something hit her forehead with quite some force. Flinching in pain, she began rubbing the spot that had been assaulted with her free hand while checking what it had been that had attacked her in the first place. She didn't need long to identify the projectile that had been launched at her to be, in fact, a dark colored piece of fruit gum. She glared up at her home tutor with gritted teeth and slightly teary eyes.
"Did you just throw candy at me?"
"Aye." Jun responded with a nonchalant tone in his voice, casually grabbing some more fruit gums with his free hand, throwing them upwards and catching them with his mouth in midair, not even getting in the slightest bit bothered by the princess' mean glare. A gentle smile was plastered on his face, but don't let yourself be fooled by that. Hanae knew all too well that this guy had no mercy or kindness in him when he was in "teacher-mode". He was a demon thirsty for blood.
"You can't do that!" She protested angrily.
"I can, if the princess I am supposed to teach lets her mind wander off to places irrelevant to the lesson." He told her with a slight chuckle.
"Jeez, that hurt, you know? I'm gonna tell Dad!" She told him with an evil smirk, thinking she had him cornered with this. Yet the young teacher merely shrugged at her with closed eyes, never dropping his confident smile.
"Please do, Hanae. I sure would appreciate some help disciplining such a naughty little princess. Didn't your parents tell you to pay attention to my class?"
"Ack…!" The pinkette flinched once again, noticing how he had turned the tides on her yet again. Daddy wasn't gonna help her out once he learned of the fact she hadn't paid attention to class in the first place…
"No fair…" She thus grumbled to herself, sulking slightly. "Why did that hurt so much anyway? It's just a piece of squishy gum…" She wondered out aloud while putting the piece of candy in between her right thumb and index finger, squishing it repeatedly in boredom as if to confirm her own words.
"That's due to the laws of physics. If accelerated strongly enough, even a mere piece of candy can become a deadly projectile." He told her confidently before averting his gaze slightly and scratching his cheek. "Well, maybe not deadly, but at least powerful enough to be used against absent-minded students."
"Well, joke's on you, because I'm going to eat it now." She told him cockily as she shoved the piece of candy into her mouth. Her grin was soon to fade, though, getting replaced by a grimace of utter disgust as she discretely put her hands in front of her mouth to spit the abominable treat out again."
"Ewww, is this freaking licorice? Whyyyyyy?" She whined as she stuck out her tongue with teary eyes, clearly not fond of the taste. Of course, Jun had been aware of that which had been the reason he had thrown that particular flavor at her in the first place. Well, the fact that he didn't quite fancy the taste, either, could have also influenced his decision to be honest.
"I used to ask myself why people would produce such an abominable flavor as well, but now that I can use it to direct your attention back at me whenever it drifts away, I actually am quite thankful for its existence." The brunette man chuckled playfully at her. "It would have been such a waste to actually use one of the tasty ones on this naughty little princess now, wouldn't it?" He winked at her, causing her to growl at him.
"I am not naughty. Mom and Dad say I am a good girl!" She objected fiercely, hair standing up like with an angered cat. Her parents weren't liars!
"Good girls pay attention in class, you know." He shrugged with a slight sigh.
"Hmph, class here, school there. So annoying. None of my friends need to know all this stuff…" She defiantly said as she folded her arms in front of her and looked away with a pout.
Jun was seen scratching the back of his head in a troubled fashion. She wasn't wrong about what she had said. The princess, like him, was a Genesis. And not only that, but also one with blessed genes, even among Genesis. The daughter of Eve. Well, not the real Eve per se, but that didn't really matter if the fake's genes were equally as good as the original one's were. Genetics didn't care about titles, after all.
That, in return, meant that Hanae was incredibly gifted. In fact, she was so smart, Jun was shocked how quickly he had managed to go through various subjects with her. He had taught other Genesis children in the void realm before from time to time and while they, too, had been smart, Hanae was simply a genius by comparison.
Still, teaching her was nothing but frustration still. If you asked him why, he would be able to easily tell you: This girl's intelligence may have been amazing, yet her willingness to put it to use was, to put it bluntly, abysmal, making the act of actually putting some knowledge into that tiny, pretty head of hers quite the heroic feat. One that would have even made the epic and ancient quests of Hercules appear as nothing but child play. Jun was, in fact, pretty sure the Greek hero would have easily chosen to fight off some lady with snakes for hair rather than educating this rascal of his. It was such a shame, really, to see all this potential lie unused before him. But he wouldn't be Jun freaking Samukawa if he would allow the honored princess to remain ignorant forever. It was his duty to educate this little devil to the best of his ability. The kingdom, and more importantly, the queen and king themselves depended on him! He would not let them down. Nuh-uh!
Still, he could understand where she was coming from. There weren't many Genesis her age yet, meaning that most of her friends were human. Humans, however, were simply unable to learn as quickly as Genesis could, which meant that Hanae with her mere 6 years was already way beyond them in terms of knowledge. This, naturally, was troublesome for the little princess, since children at that age wouldn't really want to be different from the others. They would just want to make friends and have fun. However, making friends when you were so vastly different was hard.
Frankly speaking, Hanae's superior intelligence alienated herself from her human friends, who couldn't follow her at times. Therefore, the princess, while originally having quite enjoyed learning new stuff, had instead quickly developed a rebellious stance towards further increasing the gap between her and her friend's knowledge in hope of not getting cast away by them. And while Jun could very well sympathize with the young girl's thoughts, that didn't mean he would accept her decision to halt her mental growth.
If anything, the princess' little dilemma had all the more shown him the importance of founding schools for Genesis as soon as possible. If there was a place for likely talented kids to come together and increase their knowledge without having to fear alienating anyone, everyone would profit. As things were now, however, they were still far from achieving this. The Genesis were still a young people. Not only didn't the humans know how to treat them properly yet, the Genesis themselves weren't all that sure, either. In terms of education, who could clearly say how much a Genesis kid would have to learn in a year? Sure, they were smarter, but how much smarter were they on average? There would naturally be smarter and dumber Genesis kids around, so what would be the middle ground? And then again, even though they were smarter, did that really mean they should be taught A LOT more? In the end, they were still children who still needed time for themselves to play and develop on their own. Their intelligence shouldn't be viewed by them as a punishment that would cut into their free-time.
Jun frowned at this line of thought, realizing how clueless he himself was about all this. He called himself a teacher, but he was sad to admit that he, himself, couldn't claim that he knew what he was doing. He had never finished some sort of training to become a teacher. There wasn't a "Genesis teacher" course in university yet and one for humans wouldn't have been accurate anyway. The only thing he could do was to try and teach Hanae in a way he thought was right.
That's why Hanae was getting home tutored by him. The public schools were simply far too slow for her. There had been a bit of trouble at first when he had made the effort to excuse all Genesis children from their compulsory school attendance, but he eventually got the government's support with the help of Shuichiro Keido who scientifically proved that Genesis simply were too smart for school, so instead, they were allowed to stay at home, only ever required to take a mandatory written exam at the end of every school term to move up to the next year. Something Jun could only laugh about, since he knew Hanae could easily take the test for the 6th year already, despite technically still being in the first. He could probably get her to enroll into it right away, but what would be the point if he knew that with her growth, she may actually already be able to enter 8th year by the end of the month. Heck, she might even already be able to graduate from High School by the time she got 7 years old! And then what? Would he have to give her college lectures after that? What a crazy world they lived in, really! Then again, if she ever reached the point in which she couldn't possibly further increase her knowledge without attaining some sort of working experience first, that only meant that she wouldn't be able to grow any further before reaching adulthood because no politician would ever allow under-aged children to work, not even if they were Genesis. Of course, Jun wouldn't support child labor, either, so that was a good thing. Still, it truly was troublesome.
When he noticed the pink haired princess slowly sneaking towards the door that would lead her out of the living room from the corner of his eyes, he quickly shoved those thoughts away and returned to the matter at hand by clearing his throat.
"Going somewhere, princess?"
"Tch, I've been caught." Begrudgingly, she went back to her seat, realizing that her teacher had snapped out of his little space-out session, which had been rare to see as it was.
He sighed at her. "I know you don't see the point in learning all this now, but…"
""…but you will be happy you learned it all once you get older.", I know. You keep telling me this, Jun-sensei, but what's the point? I can't see how any of this will ever be useful. And besides, I think I have learned enough math already…" She objected with a frown.
"Hoh…" That was the moment the brunette man smirked at her knowingly. "So you think you are already able to pass the test to move up to 8th grade?"
The princess only lifted her head high with closed eyes, smirking back at him with pride. "Of course. It's easy."
"If that's the case, would milady care for a little wager? If she wins, I will excuse her from school for the rest of the month."
"Really?" Hanae's eyes lit up with excitement once she had heard the young man's proposal. All signs of boredom and unwillingness were blown away instantly, getting replaced by nothing but eagerness. The girl's fighting spirit awoke instantly, causing Jun to chuckle in approval. Just what he had wanted to see.
"However, if the princess loses, she will give it her all to study under her teacher. No more trying to sneak away. No more daydreaming. Do we have a deal?"
The little girl's confidence visibly took a hit from her teacher's words, but Hanae was soon after seen shaking her head and eying Jun with a serious expression, clearly determined to win.
"I trust it that Jun-sensei will remain a gentleman and thus play fair?"
"But of course, princess." He told her with a humble bow. "I would never dare cheat you. The game will be fair for both sides and I fully intend to keep my word should I lose."
"Then I, first princess Hanae Ouma, will accept your challenge! You are on!" Hanae smirked at him excitedly. She would not lose!
"Very well, princess. We shall see who of us will win. Teacher or student." He chuckled amusedly at the young girl's eagerness. He even got her to use her name for their little contest, too. She couldn't back out of this now. "I will give you ten math assignments to solve, each of them covering elements of the curriculum meant for 7th graders to figure out. If you can pass all of them, you win. If you fail one, you lose. Questions?"
"None!" The pinkette shouted excitedly while raising a fist. Jun almost laughed at the cute gesture.
"Then let's start." With a gentle smile he went over to the holographic board and proceeded to write on it with his finger. The projection was able to register the distortion his finger caused and painted the holographic pixels darker wherever that was the case.
"First: Name the highest common factor of 16 and 40." He wrote both numbers next to each other for the princess to see.
"Eight!" Came Hanae's immediate response which earned her an approving nod from Jun.
"Correct." Touching a small spot in the lower right corner of the holographic board caused it to be cleared instantly for him to write the new problem on it. "Next: Which value is greater? 0.4 or 67%?"
"67% would naturally be greater." Hanae responded with a mere shrug as if every grade schooler knew the answer. Well, technically, she was a grade schooler by definition.
"That is also correct. Care to explain why?" Just to eliminate the possibility of her having guessed correctly.
"67% means 67 divided by 100, which would equal 0.67 thus clearly being greater than 0.4. Next, please."
"As you wish. What's -19 times (-2) plus (-19)?"
"Urgh. Negatives….so annoying." Hanae groaned at that one, yet solved it in a few second as well. "Should be 19."
"Impressive. What about 1000-7-7-7-7?" Jun chuckled at himself for that one and was even happier when he saw the princess smile at him in return.
"972. Please don't cut off my fingers, Jason-sensei."
He laughed at that. "Your parents would cut off mine if they knew you understood that reference."
He didn't even dare ask where she had learned of this since he already had the slight suspicion he himself might have been the source all along. And with "slight suspicion" he actually meant "it was freaking obvious". He would sometimes notice certain BDs missing from his shelf back home after the Ouma family had paid him a visit. The discs always returned sometime later, again, after a visit from the Ouma family. He knew, however, that Hanae did not mean any harm with her actions and was aware that she was technically committing theft, as he would often times find a note inside the covers containing the discs reading "Thank you!" or "Sorry for taking these without asking!" accompanied by drawn symbols of hearts or an attempted chibi-drawing of herself looking sorry, at which point he couldn't bring himself to get mad at her. Plus, being aware of Hanae's ability to absorb knowledge as fast as a sponge did with water, he knew the princess just couldn't help it. There was a thirst for knowledge inside that girl that just couldn't be quenched. And since she herself tried so hard to restrict herself from learning useful things, she instead would absorb fiction, since that knowledge didn't seem to scare her friends off as much.
He thus had the unspoken agreement with her that he would turn a blind eye on his BD collection whenever the Ouma family visited him as long as Hanae would always take from a shelf he had designated as her personal library while hiding away material he deemed too harsh for even her in another. While he had always been confident that the girl's high intelligence would allow her to draw a line between fiction and reality, there were certain…media in his possession he still thought shouldn't be left in the hands of a minor. If Hanae was going to drink from a forbidden fountain, he would at least want to direct her away from the fountains that could possibly harm her childhood…or his health, for that matter, should her parents ever find out about it.
"Understood what reference?" She closed her eyes and tilted her head innocently, wearing that aura of pseudo-ignorance better than any Hollywood actor could ever hope to achieve.
"Good girl." He praised her with a weak chuckle. "Well, shall we continue?"
"Yes, please."
That was the moment a knowing smirk appeared on the home tutor's face. He believed it was about time he activated his trap card. Hanae could only raise a brow questioningly once she saw her teacher snickering to himself.
"Find the value of the expressions for the given values of the variables: n + 2 + g, when n = 6 and g = 8."
That was the moment the pinkette's eyes widened in disbelief. What the hell was this crap? Why were there letters amongst the numbers? The hell was she supposed to do with them? You couldn't calculate those!
"Is this supposed to be a joke, Jun-sensei?" She thus asked with a nervous smile as some sweat began appearing on her forehead. He couldn't be serious!
"Nope." The brunette man told her with a smirk as he shook his head slowly. "That's a legit math problem right there. Don't tell me the smart princess who already knows everything can't solve it?" He enjoyed teasing her to his fullest, obviously, which further annoyed her.
"No, take a look at the board once more, Jun-sensei. I believe there is something wrong here. This isn't English class, you know?" She insisted, now slightly angry as she pointed at the board. Jun turned around to it to check for himself, only to turn around once more to confirm that there was nothing wrong there.
"How could there be nothing wrong! Why are there letters where there should be numbers?
"Those are called variables, Hanae. And they are legit." He told her with a tired sigh.
"Liar!" She accused him while pointing her right index finger at him angrily. "You are making this up so that I would lose! Do you take me for a fool just because I am young?"
"Fine, how about this?" He offered her a small smile and shrugged in an "It can't be helped."-fashion before he said: "I will tell you the answer to that problem and you can ask your parents to solve it as well. If they give you the same answer, the problem must be legit, right?"
"Fine!" She told him while sending an challenging glare his way. If Jun wouldn't know better, he would actually be afraid to see sparks coming his way just from how intense the princess was staring at him. She had no intention of losing to him.
She hastily formed a crystal clump in her right hand in order to send her thoughts to her parents through it. Its form looked slightly misshapen and clumsy for which she appeared to be a bit embarrassed for a second once she noticed her teacher lifting a brow at her, but before he could tell her that it was "alright" and that "no one was born a master" with that pitying look of his, she was seen shaking her head and closing her eyes really tightly, apparently deep in concentration. While the brows of her eyes trembled heavily from how much force she used to press them shut, the ugly crystal in her hand gradually changed into a more presentable shape. Completely symmetrical and with a clean, shining surface.
Once done, she hesitantly opened one of her eyes to catch a hasty glimpse at her creation, only to smile as soon as she noticed she had succeeded. At first, it was just out of relief, but eventually also out of pride as she held the small crystal in front of her and towards Jun. It was almost as if she was silently saying "Look! I can do it just fine if I want to!". Her excitement was so genuine and pure, that the royal advisor couldn't help but pat her head slightly with an approving smile. The girl could only giggle at that, but only as long as it took for her thoughts to return to the problem at hand. Opening her eyes wide in realization, she quickly backed off of her home tutor. Her eyes told him "I won't lose!" once more, to which he could only shrug and shake his head ever so slightly with a weak smile.
"Mama! Papa! Can you hear me?" She cried into the crystal while still eying Jun angrily. It was probably meant to scare him off, yet did almost the opposite since she was so little and thus only looked cute even when angry. In an attempt to not chuckle at her adorableness, he chose to close his eyes and take out the flat rectangular crystal he was carrying in his pants' pocket to join in on the conversation.
Not even ten seconds after the princess had called out to her parents, her father's voice entered her mind loud and clearly, yet also with nothing but warmth and kindness. The young girl immediately felt at ease once she felt his mental presence through the crystals. There was this certain aura of security that always tended to linger around her parents.
"My, my. Is that my little sunshine calling in?" He asked her with a small laugh, sounding obviously happy to hear from her for some reason.
"Yes!" She immediately gleamed at him through the crystal..
"Did you miss Mommy and Daddy? Don't worry, dear. We will be back when it's time for dinner."
She hastily shook her head. Whether she was aware that her father couldn't see the gesture or not was something Jun wondered about as he held back a snicker.
"That's not it, Dad! I mean, I do miss you, but that's not why I called." She hastily explained to him while waving her free hand around frantically.
"You didn't? Then is there something wrong, perhaps? Please tell me you didn't break something expensive while practicing your crystal powers…" He asked her rather nervously, causing her to shake her head heavily once more.
"Noooo, listen! Jun-sensei is bullying me!" She whined.
"Hoh?" The sheer tone of his king's voice alone made a shiver travel down Jun's spine, despite him knowing he hadn't done anything wrong. A father's protectiveness sure was scary, he thought as he nervously wiped some sweat off his forehead with a smile.
"Jun, my old friend, what is this about you bullying my adorable little daughter?" They both heard the king's voice ask over the crystal connection. It sounded calm and friendly and it was easy to imagine the man smiling on the other end of the line, yet a small sense of protectiveness remained. But that was only natural, of course. Jun knew that any parent would be worried when their child told them they were bullied, even if they secretly knew the child was probably over-reacting.
"Greetings, my king. I assure you, there is nothing to worry, as I am only trying to teach the princess some math." The young teacher told him with a hand on his chest and a humble bow. Noticing that, he was quick to laugh at himself. Guess he couldn't make fun of Hanae for doing unnecessary things out of habit when he was doing the same things as well. How embarrassing.
The king, however, oblivious to all of this, merely chose to share a hearty laugh with both of them.
"Ahh, math you say? Truly the archenemy of every kid on this planet. I see now what Hanae means. I myself tended to hate it quite a lot." He confessed with a hearty laugh.
"No way, my king. Surely you would have aced your classes?" Jun chuckled in response, not even wanting to imagine a scenario in which his king was underperforming.
"Yeah, except I didn't. I tended to have other things on my mind at the time. Such as voids, and terrorists, and a certain pink haired vocalist we ended up calling our queen." The brunette king explained sheepishly which earned him an amused laugh from Jun in return as he shrugged.
"I see. That does make sense, of course. I suppose I, myself, wasn't a good student, either. I tended to be absent most of the time, lazing around on some bed like a crystal rock."
Laughter filled their minds once more, much to the princess' disdain as she couldn't quite follow the conversation. This must be one of these wretched "grown-up conversations" she couldn't figure out. Mainly because those two kept talking about events in the past she couldn't possibly know of.
"Anyway, where's Mom?" She thus asked, hoping to end the topic.
"Oh, she is currently a bit busy, handing out crystals to everybody. Turns out people have really been waiting for them over here in Austria. There are even a few people from surrounding countries gathering here. Seems people can't wait to get those things."
"Really? I wanted to go, too!" Hanae whined as she felt as if she had been left out.
"Nah, you ain't missing much, honey. Your mother is basically handling this by herself. I actually feel more like a glorified hood ornament for her. You know, always tagging along, never really doing anything aside from waving and smiling at the people." He sighed. "There is nothing for me to do here."
All Jun did was smile at that. "And that's good. If you don't have anything to do, then that means everything is peaceful and you don't have to intervene to enforce the law."
"Heh. I suppose that's true. It still is boring, though." Shu admitted with a slight chuckle.
"Guess that's the burden of kingship, huh."
"Well, I can manage as long as it's just boredom."
They laughed again.
"Urgh, enough already! I need your help, Papa!" The princess finally declared with a slight whine to get back to the matter at hand. She could almost see how her father would raise a brow at that.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"The princess and I have a small competition running in which she needs to answer ten math problems correctly in order to get excused from school for the rest of the month." Jun explained to the king with a slight chuckle, only to have Hanae growl at him in return.
"HOWEVER…." She eyed him fiercely for a second. "Jun-sensei isn't a good sport and decided to cheat…"
"Jun? Cheat? What, is the world ending already? Has my sister decided to bring the apocalypse without telling me first?" They heard Shu ask them jokingly, obviously having unbreakable faith in his friend's honesty and loyalty.
"I know, right? It's not like him, but halfway in he started using letters to replace numbers! It's outrageous! He even claims they are legit!" She narrowed her eyes on her teacher. "I am beyond disappointed."
"Letters?" The king sounded a bit surprised at first, only to give his daughter a warm laugh in return. "Honey, that's algebra. It may not look like it, but that's still math. That being said…" His tone became concerned afterwards as he seemed to direct his thoughts towards Jun next. "Isn't algebra kind of a far reach for Hanae, Jun? She is six…"
"Nonsense, my king. I can assure you that your daughter is more than fit to understand the principle of algebra. In fact, she will be ready to easily pass the final exams of the most remarkable high schools around here in a few months.
This seemed to light up Shu's heart with nothing but pride for his daughter. "Really? That's amazing, Hanae. Mommy and Daddy are proud of you. To think my little angel turned out to be quite the genius…"
"But I don't want to be a genius…" Jun could hear her mumble to herself with a frown. Her father didn't hear that since she wasn't saying this over the crystal network. The sight of that troubled Jun. So not even her father's praise could change her mind? How troublesome.
"So, how can I help my daughter out? Is this some kind of telephone joker thing?" They could hear the brunette king ask eagerly. They were both pretty sure he was wearing a smile on his lips, unable to wait helping his dear daughter out.
"Sort of, my king. All you need to do is answer the following problem for her." The royal advisor and teacher explained while writing the answer to the problem on the holographic board for Hanae to see. If the solution her father provided would match the result written on the board, it would proof his point of the math problem being legit. Hanae eyed him determinedly as she silently listened in on them as Jun read out the problem to her father next. She couldn't notice any suspicious actions from her teacher to direct her father into giving the answer he desired.
"Easy. The answer is 16." Shu replied with no hesitation at all, causing Hanae to grit her teeth when she noticed his answer matched the number written on the board. But where the proud father expected to hear the gleaming voice of his thankful daughter, admiring him for helping her in her hour of need, he was shocked to hear her groan in frustration instead.
"Argh! Whyyyyy!"
"Eh? Was I wrong? But I was sure I did it right…" Shu's voice resounded in their minds, audibly confused. Of course he never knew his daughter had wanted him to give them the wrong answer, or downright refuse to do so since it supposedly was impossible.
Frustrated by this, Hanae decided to cry: "Dad, you are useless! Give me Mom!"
"U-u-useless…!?"
Jun felt quite the sympathy for his king as he could vividly envision him staring blankly into the air like a fish that had been pulled out of the water. His daughter words had probably hit him harder than a truck ever could. Poor man. All he had wanted was to gain his daughter's admiration. Jun felt the urge to go over there and put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. Perhaps next time, old friend.
"Um, Hanae, dear, is that you?" A new voice entered the discussion now. A softer and lovelier one, yet not one that deserved any less respect than Shu's did. Of course it was Inori's.
"Mommy!" Hanae quickly exclaimed happily upon hearing her beloved mother's voice. Surely she could count on her at least.
For some reason, though, Hanae heard her mother sigh at her. "So it was you, after all. I knew it had to be since your father looked so happy while talking over the crystal network, yet he suddenly dropped his crystal and looked like all life was drained out of him. Hanae, please tell me you didn't break something again? I know you don't mean ill, but money doesn't grow on trees, you know…" She sounded quite worried there at the end, Jun noticed. This little rascal of theirs seemed to break quite a lot of expensive things, apparently.
"N-no, Mom, you got it all wrong!" Her daughter was quick to fix the misunderstanding, unwilling to get scolded for something she hadn't even done.
"Oh? Then what else could your father be so shocked about?"
"It appears the princess has quite the severe way of wording her disappointment, my queen." Jun decided to explain the situation to her. "More importantly, aren't you busy? We would feel awful for keeping you from work."
"No way, Jun. I will always have time for my daughter." Inori merely stated, making her smile almost audible through her voice. Her motherly love could warm any heart, especially Hanae's. If her mother had been in front of her right now, she would have tackled her down and hugged her as hard as she could. Jun, on the other hand, felt very conflicted about his queen's readiness to let thousands of people wait in line in favor of helping her daughter with homework instead. While that showed him how good of a mother she was, the same couldn't be said about her ability to set priorities properly. He made a mental note to remember that additional work was required to balance this out more in the future.
"Mom, I need your help! You have to prove Jun-sensei wrong!"
"Huh? Jun made an error? How unusual."
"No such thing happened, my queen. As you, and hopefully your daughter as well, will notice in just a moment. Excuse me for the disturbance, but could you please solve the following problem?"
Again, Jun read out the equation that was meant for Hanae to solve and again, Hanae couldn't find anything suspicious in Jun's voice to manipulate her mother's answer.
"Ah, algebra. This brings me back. How long has it been, I wonder? The answer is 16, of course." The queen responded with quite a bit of delight in her voice, feeling slightly nostalgic about solving old math problems for the first time in years. The last time she had done that was when she had still been in school. Felt like ages ago.
"How could this beeeee?" Hanae cried as she put both her hands at each side of her head while shaking it furiously. Why had both her parents forsaken her?
"It's easy, honey. You are just meant to substitute the numbers for the corresponding letters." Inori kindly explained to her daughter, wishing to be of help.
"What the heck? Why substitute numbers with letters? Why not write the numbers instead? This is bull-"
"Language, Hanae." Her mother's stern voice was heard for a moment, cutting in on her daughter's rant. The young girl quickly ceased to talk while looking down in shame.
"Sorry…" She said, immediately reflecting on her actions. Jun felt the urge to pat her head proudly, but luckily he was able to withstand it.
"Thanks a lot, your grace. With your help, I was able to teach your daughter yet another valuable lesson." He humbly said while offering the defeated girl in front of him a kind smile.
"Huh? Um, no problem, I guess?" The pink haired queen sounded a bit confused as she, naturally, didn't know the whole story behind it. She had probably tilted her head in wonder in her usual Inori-fashion as well. Imagining that alone already made Jun smile amusedly in response.
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Mom. You were useless, too." Hanae added quite begrudgingly as she narrowed her eyes in disdain and looked away in frustration, unwilling to even look at Jun's confident face.
"U-u-useless…!?" Jun winced at the shock in her voice as she probably reacted the same way the king had just moments prior. That daughter of hers appeared to be quite merciless with her words. Shu and Inori were such proud parents that even just hearing these words were enough to make them cease to function. Hanae sure was loved, huh.
He felt bad for them because he was aware that Hanae wasn't angry with them but him instead and her letting out her frustration on them was the only way she could vent. It wasn't quite a nice thing of her to do, but she was only a kid who didn't know better. Plus, knowing her, she would realize her mistake soon anyway and apologize once her mood improved again. That's just how the princess worked, he figured. He could lecture her about it, of course, but he doubted it would have any positive effect in her current state. There might not be a need for it in the first place, if she were to correct her mistake on her own later anyway, so he chose to refrain on souring the young one's mood further than he already had.
Neither Shu, nor Inori replied to anything afterwards, probably having severed the connection. While that worried him a little, he knew Shu and Inori were responsible adults who could look after themselves, so he directed his attention back to what was more important right now.
"Well, princess, it would appear it was my win."
He only saw her clenching her fist in anger while looking down. Her face was obstructed by her hair as she began gritting her teeth.
"Shall we carry on with the lesson, then?" He tried asking kindly, hoping she would give him a calm response that way. He was wrong.
"Oh, I will carry on with that lesson alright." She suddenly yelled at him angrily and with tearful eyes as she began forming crystal clumps in her hand and proceeded with throwing them at him in quick succession.
"Here's a problem for you! Happy hippo plus sad panda times kind penguin equals angry birdy. Solve for dolphins!"
Panicked, Jun could do little but trust his reflexes to not only avoid getting damaged by the princess' projectiles, but the apartment's furniture as well. Tracking the crystal objects carefully, he managed to catch the majority of them, followed by dropping them on the ground.
Seeing that even her attacks were meaningless against her adversary, the young princess grew even more frustrated and couldn't hold the tears in that had already formed in her eyes as she slumped to the ground and began hugging her legs tightly in a last ditch effort to hide her crying face.
"Stupid Jun. Cheater. I hate you! And what is this about geniuses? Stupid Papa. Who wants that? Everyone is stupid!" He could hear her cry in between hiccups. A sight that could immediately crush anyone's spirits, as Jun found. Offering her a sympathetic look, he approached her slowly to take a seat next to her.
"It appears that I might have gone too far with my little trick and made the young princess cry. My apologies, Hanae." He began speaking softly to her. She did not respond, but Jun could notice her eyes resting on him. He had her attention at least. Good.
"You must understand that I am not forcing you to go through this because I hate you or want to anger you. I do this because I want you to realize how important your education is because, chances are that, one day, you will be queen, too, just like your mother is now. And I want you to do a good job so that people can look up to and love you, instead of wishing someone else had succeeded your mother, do you understand?"
"I don't wish to succeed mother. She is a fine queen. The best even. She should stay one forever." The pinkette voiced her disagreement while wiping away her tears.
"But don't you want to be one?" He asked her, chuckling slightly.
"Well…" She appeared to think about it for a while. "It would be fun to tell everyone what to do. I could abolish school." Then her face suddenly lit up as a bright idea crossed her mind. "And I could tell everyone that they should throw licorice candy at you whenever they see you!" She grinned at him mischievously while he could only look away with a snicker.
"Well, I guess it's time to ask queen Mana if she would rather have me serve her instead." He shrugged at her playfully, causing her to gasp.
"High treason! I will never allow you to do that!" She declared angrily while shaking him by the shoulder.
"Hoh? I thought the princess hated me…?"
Opening her eyes wide from shock, she quickly averted her gaze to hide her blush while mumbling quietly:
"…..do not…."
The brunette man offered her a relieved sounding sigh at that. "I am relieved, my princess. And here I thought I was no longer invited to your next birthday party."
"Don't you dare not to come!" She suddenly growled at him. "Everyone is coming! Mommy and Daddy always make this huuuge cake and even auntie Mana is trying to not fight with Mama. You absolutely have to come!" Her eyes glittered with determination, causing him to laugh. She had even spread out her arms to demonstrate how big of a cake she would be receiving from her parents. Adorable.
"Alright, I get it. I'll come, I'll come."
"You better do!"
It was quiet for a bit and Jun was happy to see that the young girl's mood had been lifted enough for her to at least no longer cry. He figured that was a good opportunity to ask the serious questions.
"My princess, can I ask you why you hate school so much?" He had the feeling he already knew, but better make sure and confirm it.
"Dumb question. Because it is boring of course." Hanae immediately responded while folding her arms and closing her eyes as if her answer was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What about it is boring?"
"Everything."
"If you could be a bit more specific, maybe I as your teacher could find ways to improve my lessons?"
"Impossible."
"You know, Hanae, when children say they are bored with school, that's usually either because they don't understand what is taught or because it's too easy for them to understand. Now, since I don't seem to have problems teaching you new things, I can only assume it is the latter? Are my lessons to easy? Should I make them harder?"
"No!" She was quick to look at him with eyes opened wide from shock as she pretty much begged him to no do that with the look of her face alone. "Please don't!"
"Why? Do you hate learning?" He asked with a raised brow, causing her to bite down on her lower lip.
"I hate it…" She said, quietly and not looking at him. Well now, that was quite suspicious if you asked him.
"Really?" She didn't respond this time. He saw right through her. Just one last push…
"Your parents sure must be proud of their daughter for being such an honest girl. I will have to tell them all about it once they come back."
You could read the guilt right off the girl's troubled face as she nervously tried to look away before eventually caving under the pressure Jun's innocent smile offered her. Hanae was far too much of a good girl for her to ever be comfortable with lying. Her conscience didn't seem to allow her to.
"I don't hate it…" She mumbled quietly into knees as she began hugging them again. "I want to know all the things. Why the sky is blue and why fire is hot. How my power works, how people get sick and how the virus auntie, Mama and I can control turns them into Genesis. I want to know everything. Understand everything." She confessed now, this time more audible. "But my friends….they don't. And when I try to talk about it, they look at me with these weird eyes. Looks I have never seen before. Not from you, mother, father or even granduncle Keido. It's scary, Jun-sensei."
He knew it. So that what it was all along. He narrowed his eyes at these kids in contempt for a second, feeling nothing but anger for treating the honored princess this way, but then he sighed, forcing himself to calm down. They were children, after all.
"I see. So you try to remain stupid to avoid getting shunned by your friends, huh."
She nodded silently.
"You know, the desire to fit in isn't uncommon for humans and Genesis alike. After all, we aren't beings of solitude. We need others around us to feel happy. However, trying to fit in too much isn't good, either. It is one thing to try and get along with others, and yet entirely another to deliberately adapt your personality to theirs just to fit in. You might end up fitting into the group you wanted to get in that way, but at the cost of everything that made you unique. I made the same mistake once, too."
This caused Hanae to look up at her teacher in wonder.
"No way, Jun-sensei makes mistakes?"
He chuckled at that.
"Well, every once in a blue moon, I just might. Seriously, though, everyone makes mistakes. Me, my brother, your parents, everyone. Evolution doesn't make any of us perfect. When I woke up in the void realm, I saw everyone using all these cool voids and wanted to be a part of the group. However, it turned out that my void wasn't cool at all, so they made fun of me for being different. At first, I felt really bad about it, but then I realized that being different didn't have to be a bad thing. I knew I could do stuff everyone else couldn't, and so I put that to use. I befriended your mother and helped her rule. And in return, I became part of the group anyway. As you can see, the goal is to play your cards correctly."
"And I suppose that means refusing to learn isn't the proper way to play?" Hanae furrowed her brows, trying to understand her teacher's words. It earned her a kind smile and a shake of the head from him in return.
"That's just refusing to play, Hanae. You are the first princess, daughter of Shu and Inori Ouma, gifted with the powers of Eve and immense intelligence. If people fear that or envy you for it, use that intelligence to make them understand that there is nothing to fear. And while I think you have plenty things going for you that people should envy you for, it might probably be for the best to show them that they have things to envy someone for themselves. They might feel less distance between you and them, then."
"Huh, that does make sense…somewhat." The pinkette admitted while putting a finger on her lips, trying to comprehend everything that was just told to her. "But what if I fail?" She asked him somewhat timidly, which was a pretty uncommon sight coming from her.
"Failure is a part of growing up. Everybody fails sometimes. The goal is to learn from your mistakes. Don't worry too much about it, though. Contrary to what you might want to believe, having lots of friends isn't what you should aim for. Rather than that, having one or two really good ones would be better."
"Why is that?" She wondered.
"Because it is better to have a few people to depend on in your hour of need rather than a lot of people who will act like they don't know you when things go south."
"…so I should deliberately cut people off…?" She sounded really sad about that, causing Jun to immediately wave his hands in front of him hastily to correct the misunderstanding.
"No, princess. That's the wrong approach. Rather than cutting people off, just welcome a lot and see which ones are willing to stick around. You can focus on the people really close to you then while letting your distant friends be just that. Ideally, no one should get hurt that way, though there might be a few casualties along the way…" Well, if worse came to worst, she would still have her family to support her, so it should have been fine either way.
"Huh, I think I get it, sensei!" The young girl suddenly raised her fists in eagerness as she grinned. "I won't lose!" She looked so spirited all of a sudden that Jun wouldn't have thought she had been so insecure about this before. Apparently, it didn't take much to fuel the optimistic nature of this girl. He actually feared she might have even been a bit too eager, almost ready to run out of the house and take the world on right this instant. He thought all that energy was better spent learning new stuff instead, which is why he kindly suggested:
"Glad to hear that. Should we perhaps continue with the lesson, then?" Only to get shocked when all her eagerness seemed to leave her again, eyes narrowed down in boredom almost immediately.
"I'd rather not…"
This confused him. He thought they had come to an understanding and resolved the problem of her unwillingness to learn. Had he overlooked something?
"I don't understand. I thought you said you liked learning?" He asked her while scratching his hair confusedly. This girl might be quite the mystery after all. Like mother, like daughter, or so it seemed.
"I do. But I hate math nonetheless." She told him with a sheepish grin as she scratched the back of her head.
Jun could do little but to blink at her, slightly perplexed at first. But then he broke out into a hearty laugh as he finally understood he had fought an impossible battle all along. It hadn't been her unwillingness to learn that had stood in his way of teaching her today, but rather her disinterest in the subject as a whole. Fair enough, he thought. It was time for him to admit defeat. Closing his eyes with a sigh, he eventually said:
"Fine, let's consider this the end of the lesson for today. But I expect more effort from you in the future, alright?" He opened one of his eyes to smile at her as he ruffled her hair causing her to giggle. She immediately beamed at his proposal with a smile brighter than a thousand suns in the middle of July and tackled him down with the strongest hug she could possibly muster.
"Really? Awesome! You're the best, Jun-sensei!"
"Just go before I change my mind." He playfully told her and laughed when he saw her running for the door almost immediately. "But remember to be back for dinner, or your parents will kill me."
"You got it! Bye!" She had waved him good-bye and vanished through the door not even a second later. This girl sure didn't waste but a single second. Sometimes you couldn't even blink or you would have stood at danger missing her altogether. Just where did this child take all her energy from?
He sighed again as he went over to the table he and Hanae had previously been sitting at to collect his stuff and call it a day.
Sometimes he wondered if he wasn't too lenient with her because she was the princess, but then again, who could have stayed strict when faced with that girl's adorableness? As expected of Shu and Inori's child, he thought. Only the best from the best. He smiled proudly as he nodded to himself.
At this point, he would already be happy if she wouldn't end up to be spoiled rotten by her parents. But there was nothing to fear, of course, as he was absolutely confident in Shu and Inori's parenting skills. There was no doubt they would raise their kid to be nothing short of a respectable and polite young lady. With his help of course.
However…
When, later that day, he finally saw Shu and Inori come home from their trip at last, walking through the front door like lifeless zombies surrounded by their very own aura of gloom while constantly muttering "We are useless…" over and over again…he started to believe that maybe, but only maybe, they were in more need of help than he had previously thought…
Well, that's it. I hope it was interesting enough for y'all.
I have come to realize that so far, all my chapters are taking part in the ceasefire universe and I am a bit surprised at that myself, as that hadn't been the original plan at all. But it seems like I have fallen in love with the universe gradually and keep pushing out more and more ideas for it. Hopefully you guys have come to appreciate the ceasefire universe as much as I have in the meantime. It really has grown on me, as has Hanae, if I am allowed to say so myself.
That being said, I hope I can write the chapter next in which I show how Hanae had turned out, had she been born in the regular Reclaiming the Throne universe. As I have mentioned last time, I just love tragedy and corrupting characters because it gets so many feels out of the readers, especially if you do horrible stuff to the characters they have come to like. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed Re:Zero so much this season, as it was finally an anime that did it right for once. I wonder how you all would react to "Tyrant princess Hanae Ouma", hrhrhr. Shu and Inori's little flower is indeed able to grow quite some thorns if you provide her with the right incentive...
I have also come to realize that, ever since I started expanding the ceasefire universe, there are things happening in the background that I never get to explain in the chapters themselves as they aren't important enough, such as why Shu and Inori are in Europe this time and how they are able to travel there and back in less than a day. Some questions are easily answered, while others would take more time. If you are curious, ask me in a PM. I can at least answer the travel time thing, since it's easy. Since Yuu never traveled into the void realm in this universe, Abeline and Zoe never grew attached to him and instead stuck with Shu and Inori instead. After growing up (They are 18 in this universe, due to time skip), they became maids in the Ouma household and accompany the king and queen on their travels through the world whenever they come up. However, since they can't cook for shit, Shu and Inori must cook themselves. :P