Chapter three is finally here. All things Azumanga belong to their respective owners. And since Stephen K from Yahoo helped me with Kimura's job, I had him design a character in return. So Seijin Fukurou is his character in the fanfic. All things Azumanga belong to their respective owners. Happy Reading :)
Chapter 3: The One They Call Crazy
The sun outside had just risen, and now was shining through the window into ZaXo's room. The gentle light glowed in a deep, warm orange, flowing through the air and taking rest on his bed sheets. ZaXo slept soundly, dreaming of his old home in America, if only for just another moment. A sudden ringing sound shot from the alarm clock on the bedside table, breaking the silence. The shock from the abrupt noise sent ZaXo falling to the floor. Already alert, yet still not completely coherent, he opened his eyes and looked around frantically for the source of the noise. Finally noticing that it was his alarm, he scrambled to the other side of his bed to shut off the infernal racket.
A deep sigh escaped the boy's mouth, glad to once again be surrounded by silence. This seemed to happen to ZaXo a lot. If he had his alarm any quieter it wouldn't wake him, but it almost always gave him a heart attack when it was up this loud. His pulse slowly went back to normal as he looked around the room. The dream he was having was so realistic that until just a second ago, he thought he was still in America. A smile grew across ZaXo's mouth as he realized that he was actually in Japan. He almost wasn't able to come to this amazing country, full of culture and originality. This place was such a fine mix of modern and ancient lifestyles that it was practically perfect in his opinion. So actually being here was an amazing thought to wake up to. Plus, he had already made some great acquaintances that he was excited to get to know.
ZaXo yawned as he got up and stretched, and then he started to get ready for school. While brushing his teeth, he remembered that he was to meet his new friends at the park. They had all planned on walking to school together, and he needed to be there in ten minutes. So ZaXo sped up his morning 'to do list', and within five minutes was practically sprinting out the door. For a split second, fright overcame him, fearing that he'd forgotten how to get there. But this was dispelled quickly as the directions came rushing back to him.
Three minutes later, ZaXo was at the corner before the meeting point. He could hear Kaorin speaking in her usual, very high pitched voice, though he couldn't quite understand her yet. ZaXo figured that she must have started getting over Kimura's new involvement in her life, as she sounded very peppy. His thoughts were confirmed when he rounded the corner, just in time to see her smiling and staring intently at Sakaki. "Hey all. How is everything?" ZaXo asked the group as he walked up. A few of them turned to look at him, including Kagura and… a very small girl with auburn pigtails.
For the first time it struck ZaXo how small Chiyo-Chan was. She didn't look near old enough to be in college. Heck, she looked just barely old enough to be in high school. "H-hey Chiyo, can I ask you something?" ZaXo inquired timidly, hoping that she was as young as she seemed, or his next question could be taken as an insult.
"Of course," she beamed at him.
"Well… I was just wondering…" ZaXo paused, nerves almost getting the better of him. He really didn't want to make any of his new friends mad, but he couldn't back out now. "I was wondering, how old you are?"
"Oh, is that it? You looked really anxious for a second," the little girl responded politely. "I'm just fourteen, but I skipped from elementary school straight to high school."
"What? You skipped that much schooling? Man you must be some kind of super genius!" ZaXo said in awe.
"Not really," Chiyo blushed. "But everyone seems to think so…"
"Geez, how long is it gonna take Tomo and Yomi to get here?" Kagura interrupted in annoyance. ZaXo hadn't even noticed that they weren't here yet. As he began to wonder why, Tomo came racing around the corner, looking both shocked and frightened.
"Hide me!" the frantic girl yelled, eyes darting around in search of a place to conceal herself. She then dived behind a tree, her back to the trunk. She breathed deeply while everyone just stared at her.
Finally Osaka spoke up for the group, asking what they all wanted to know. "What're ya hidin' from?"
"Not what; who! Yomi's gone crazy!" Tomo whispered. She stepped out from her hiding spot, and turned to look around the trunk of the tree. Immediately she got hit on the head by a brown haired girl with a big pair of glasses over her eyes. Yomi seemed to have come from nowhere, shocking them all.
"That's what you get!" the angry girl growled in triumph and she brushed herself off before walking over to her other friends. Tomo simply lay on the ground, stars in her eyes.
"What did she do this time?" Kagura wondered aloud.
"Why don't you ask her…" Yomi snarled, anger glowing on her face. Tomo slowly got up and walked over to the group, her face still twisted in pain as she massaged her head.
"It… ugh, it wasn't that bad, and definitely wasn't worth a punch that hard," Tomo groaned. She stopped for a few seconds to feel for a bump on her head before telling everyone what had happened to get Yomi so flustered. "You see, I was bored yesterday, so I decided to go to go to the mall. While I was browsing in my favorite clothing store, some guy jumped out from behind the shelf and started talking to me," Tomo began. "He said his name was Haru Itagaki, and claimed he was looking for good ideas for his fashion design class. But suddenly his angle changed completely. The guy asked me if I wanted to go on a date sometime!" she yelled. Chiyo and Kaorin gasped, but everyone else stood their ground in silence. The look on Tomo's face said that she was searching for sympathy, but nobody really knew why.
"So what does that have to do with Yomi?" Kagura shot, not willing to let Tomo's story get to her.
"Well… you see, I thought he was kinda ugly, and his hyper attitude was really annoying. So... I told him that Yomi would like to go on the date with him instead…" she muttered, looking at her shoes. Now everyone in the group gasped, but Yomi interrupted them before anyone could react further.
"Wait, that's not even the half of it. Tell them what else you did Takino," Yomi shot angrily at the embarrassed looking girl next to her.
"Umm, do I have to?" Tomo pleaded, to which Yomi raised a fist, making the answer as clear as a cloudless sky. "I… I told him where Yomi lives, and set up a time and day for their date. But that's not so bad… right?" Tomo finished. The group was filled with mixed reactions. Chiyo, Kaorin, and Sakaki each gave Tomo disappointed looks. Osaka looked happy for Yomi, and Kagura began to laugh, to which the bespectacled one shot a menacing look. ZaXo realized that this was probably a really mean thing for Tomo to do if she knew the guy wasn't Yomi's type. Still, he didn't know Haru, so he couldn't really react to this 'betrayal'.
"So when do you have to go on a date with him?" ZaXo asked the furious brunette.
"On Sunday at six, but like hell I'm gonna show up!" she stated sternly in response.
"Hey, I thought he would be your type you know! I knew that if he was the opposite of what I like, then you'd probably like him. And anyway, it'd be rude for you to just ditch him," Tomo explained.
"Oh yeah? You thought a guy that's annoying… just like you, would be perfect for me? I can hardly stand how hyper and crazy you can be Tomo. What in your brain tells you for a second that he would be my type?" Yomi questioned Tomo severely.
"Well, she is kind of right though Miss Yomi. It would be extremely rude of you to not show up," Chiyo half whispered, knowing that her friend might not react well to hearing this.
"Don't worry. We'll figure out how to make this date a little more bearable Yomi," ZaXo assured her, and the others nodded. Yomi stared at them for a few seconds, fire in her eyes, but it began to ebb away as she sighed, giving a reluctant nod. The group started to walk to school, Tomo staying far from Yomi at the back.
"Hey Kaorin," Sakaki started nicely.
"Y-yes Miss Sakaki?" Kaorin stuttered, looking excitedly at her tall friend.
"Tomo said Haru was in fashion design. Is he in your fashion design class?"
"Oh, I'm not sure. I could check today though. And then if he is, I'll do some recon for you," Kaorin answered determinedly.
"That would be great…" Yomi told her monotonously, and from then on they talked about other things while walking the rest of the way to school.
When they arrived in Yukari's class a while later, most of them took the same, seemingly random seats that they had the day before. However, this time ZaXo knew not to sit with them since he was now the unofficial 'teacher's aid'. Instead he waited for Yukari to arrive. She walked through the door ten minutes early, to which most of the people who had her for high school raised their eyebrows in confusion. Yukari didn't seem particularly happy to be in class already though. As she passed by ZaXo and threw her bag at her desk, he could hear her muttering something under her breath. "Stupid Nyamo making me come in this damn early. I'd better get paid overtime for this."
Yukari then started setting up her desk with the things she needed… kind of. She threw textbooks and things carelessly onto the wooden surface without really looking at them. ZaXo stood in amazement. He had never had a teacher that was so unorthodox in her methods, or as laid back as this… but he kind of liked it. Though he wasn't actually in her English class per-se, he felt that if he was, then he could probably get a lot more from her than the mindless drones that he usually had for teachers. Yukari then ran from the room with a couple hundred Yen in her hands, this time groaning about the fact that she had to go to the main floor to buy a coffee. 'Then again… maybe she's a little too laid back.' ZaXo thought to himself, stifling a laugh.
Seven minutes later, Yukari came back to the room right as class was supposed to start. She looked slightly less annoyed now, a steaming cup of black coffee in her hand. She took a sip, and then turned to ZaXo. "Hey, whoever you are; get over here," she said loudly.
"It's ZaXo Ken'Ichi ma'am, and what do you need me to do today?" ZaXo responded as nicely as possible, bowing to his elder.
"Yeah, Zacko Ken-whatever, come get this marker and start writing what I tell you to on the board," she stated nonchalantly. ZaXo nodded and grabbed the red dry erase marker, then walked up to face the board. Yukari began by having him write down the different phrases and words they were to learn in class. Five minutes in, a firm voice came from the seating area of the classroom.
"Excuse me, but that's not correct," the male voice said. ZaXo turned to see a boy in the front row looking at him. He had short black hair that almost looked blue in the class lighting. He wore square glasses that were rounded at the corners. His eyes seemed to radiate a massive intelligence, and he looked wise beyond his years. The boy spoke up again. "You have made a few mistakes up there on the board."
"Well, then would you like to come up and correct them?" ZaXo asked sincerely. The boy nodded and got up. He was very tall, and wore nice, semi-formal attire. As he approached the boy spoke up once more.
"I already know you as ZaXo Ken'Ichi. My name is Seijin Fukurou," Seijin told him, before holding his hand out for the marker. ZaXo gave it to him, and turned to face his work. "To start, you wrote these Kanji slightly off the mark. They should look more like… this," One by one Seijin corrected the mistakes ZaXo made. He was happy to see that they weren't that big.
"Thanks for the help Seijin," ZaXo smiled, but the boy didn't back down yet.
"Actually… you made a mistake here too," he explained slowly, pointing to an English word. ZaXo had foolishly spelled the word 'guarantee' without the u in the beginning. Seijin quickly corrected this, and then handed the marker back. ZaXo could feel his face getting warm with embarrassment. Not only had he spelled a word horribly wrong in his own native language, but he was corrected by someone who was in a class to learn English.
"Well, you seem to know this better than I do, so why don't you stay up here instead?" ZaXo told Seijin, trying to keep cool and show no annoyance in his voice.
"That's a great idea!" Yukari added. "C'mon super genius, get to writing," she advised him, and ZaXo handed the marker to Seijin once more. For the rest of class ZaXo sat in Seijin's seat, slightly embarrassed by the mistake he saw as catastrophic. Seijin meanwhile wrote whatever Yukari told him to, and even went about explaining it to the class. His speech craft was simply perfect, as was his writing, both in Roman letters and in Japanese.
When the bell finally rang, ZaXo was anxious to leave before any one of his friends might have the chance to ridicule him. He didn't really think any of them would actually do so, except for maybe Tomo. But in case he was wrong, ZaXo didn't really want to take the chance. As he stepped out of the doorway, someone called his name from back inside the classroom. It was Seijin. 'Great, is he gonna lecture me some more?' ZaXo groaned. However, when the boy in question caught up, he had a polite smile on his face.
"I'm really very sorry if I embarrassed you ZaXo. That wasn't at all my intention. I hope I didn't make you angry," Seijin stated respectfully, as if reading ZaXo's mind. ZaXo felt heavy guilt replace his annoyance towards Seijin. He had indeed been a little angry just a second ago. But now that he thought about it, there was nothing to be angry about. So what if he'd been embarrassed? So had everyone else at least once before in their lives. Besides, he had already kind of known Seijin probably didn't mean to do it on purpose.
"Eh, don't worry about it. I made the mistakes, and you simply corrected me. It's all good," ZaXo assured Seijin, who gave a genuine smile of relief. "So what are you going to school here for?" he continued curiously.
"Oh, I'm here for a few things. I'm starting with degrees in Physics, Psychology, and Biology for good measure. Then I'll decide which one I really want to go further in."
ZaXo just stood in a daze for a few seconds before responding. "Y-you're doing all three? As in, at the same time? How do you do that and your required classes?"
"I tested out of all of my required classes other than English, which I feel I need to brush up on," Seijin admitted. ZaXo simply stared with his mouth agape. 'He thinks he needs to get better at English? He's practically perfect at writing it, so he should be great at speaking.'
"How are you paying for all of that?" ZaXo then asked, guessing he already knew the answer.
"I got a full ride scholarship. They told me that I could take whatever I wanted completely free, as long as I passed everything with good scores. It'll help get the school some recognition."
They both stood in silence for a few seconds, as ZaXo continued to stare. He had expected this answer, but that didn't mean he was ready for it. Just then, Kagura and Tomo walked up beside them. "Hey ZaXo, what's up? Need help with your English?" Tomo started, but was hit in the back of the head by her athletic friend. "Ow, what was that for? He knows I'm only joking. After all, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I actually meant mean things like that?" Tomo said, her voice going from angry to flirty halfway through the statement. Seijin looked at Tomo and then back to ZaXo.
"Hmm, that's an odd pairing, but to each his own," Seijin simply told them both.
"Umm, we're not going out Seijin. I just met her, and I don't date girls I don't really know," ZaXo explained to him, though he was looking at Tomo as he did so, hoping she would finally understand. His statement didn't seem to have any effect on her however, as Tomo wrapped herself around his right arm once again. The rest of the gang finally arrived, and they started talking to Seijin for a while.
"Hey Tomo, Tomo, hey Tomo," a slightly high male voice called from behind them after about five minutes, though the girl he was addressing clearly wasn't listening. Finally he tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around, along with everyone else. In front of them was a boy of about their age, though he was not all that tall. He stood at about five feet, with brown, crazily spiked hair, almost as if he had just gelled it into random spots. Actually, ZaXo had to suppress a laugh, as he looked remarkably like he had his hair done for a cosplay convention. His clothing was very strange and didn't seem to match at all either.
"Oh, Haru, what's up?" Tomo chimed, smiling wide. Yomi jumped at the name, and hid behind Sakaki, who was now standing in the back of the group.
"I was wondering if my sweet Yomi was around?" Haru responded, looking around frantically. The group now noticed a flower in his hand. It was half wilted, but a nice gesture nonetheless.
"Yup, she's back the-ow!" Tomo began, but was stopped by a foot to the calf. Yomi had kicked her from in between everyone, but quickly hid again. "What the hell? Why am I the one who's getting hit by everyone today?" Tomo shouted, before saying her final statement very quickly. "Yomisbackthere." she hastily spat, pointing to the back of the group, before bending down to nurse her leg.
Yomi slowly got out from behind Sakaki, shot Tomo a very dirty look, and then turned to the very desperate looking Haru. "H-hello Haru," she stammered, turning pale.
"Hey baby, are you ready for our night out?" he responded excitedly, handing her the flower. Yomi went from pale to ghost white, and looked as if she was about to faint. Someone had to do something to make this easier on her, so ZaXo spoke up with the first thing that came to mind.
"Yeah, she is," he started, and Yomi shot him a much dirtier look than she had Tomo. But he continued regardless. "And I hope you don't mind, but we decided to make it a… double date." ZaXo winced at this statement, knowing full well what he was doing, and also knowing he might very well regret it. 'So much for not dating girls I don't know…' ZaXo thought as he slowly wrapped his arm around Tomo, and she squealed with joy. While Yomi looked a little more comfortable than before, something was still clearly wrong with her whole idea of the situation.
"Well, actually we've decided to make it a triple date," Sakaki suddenly spoke up, noticing Yomi's distress. Everyone looked at her, and she blushed, though she didn't budge. "I want to know, will you go with me Seijin?"
Seijin stood in slight alarm, but quickly gained his composure back. "It would be my pleasure, Miss Sakaki," he said elegantly, bowing in respect. Yomi finally seemed to calm down about the date, to everyone's relief.
"Yeah, I'm ready…" she told Haru, finally answering his question herself.
"Awesome! So we'll all meet at Yomi's on Sunday at six P.M. See you then baby!" Haru cheered, pumping his fist in the air before walking off with a very animated expression on his face.
"Well, is that damage control enough for you Yomi?" ZaXo asked, sighing with relief now that Haru was gone. She nodded, and walked toward her next class in silence, still holding the flower. ZaXo wasn't looking forward to this any more than she was. He knew Tomo was excited of course, but what about Sakaki and Seijin? While he thought on this, Tomo wrote Yomi's address down for the two boys.
"Hey Seijin, I don't know where this is, as I'm kinda new here. Can you meet me at my house, and then we can walk to Yomi's?" ZaXo asked. Seijin nodded, and ZaXo gave his address as well. "Well, I guess that's it. We should probably all get to class," he stated, and everyone agreed.
"Darn it, why can't we get us a boy fer this date they're havin'?" Osaka groaned, sounding bummed as she walked with Kagura, Kaorin, and Chiyo.
"Well, I'm too young to go on a date with anyone here," Chiyo admitted, and in fact, she seemed a little put off by this fact.
"Ehh, we'll find ourselves guys ten times better than they do, and go on our own group date! We'll even find a younger guy for you Chiyo!" Kagura assured them, the others agreeing energetically. The rest of the day, the four talked and talked about how great their date was going to be. Meanwhile, ZaXo and Yomi wished they could disappear, Tomo guaranteeing that their date would be better than the others could ever imagine. Only Sakaki and Seijin -who walked home from school with them that day- didn't seem to show any emotions toward the event. It was if they didn't really care either way.
So that's this chapter. I'd greatly appreciate any reviews, if you could spare the time please. Hope you liked :)
