036: Fools make promises – (The Best Shizuka x Hachiman chapter I have written)

Hiratsuka Shizuka had many complaints. Most of them were addressed towards the top management of Sobu High. They took advantage of her 'young' age and dropped a majority of their responsibilities upon her lithe little shoulders. She was an adult woman and she prided herself in living upto most of those responsibilities. But of course they often forgot that she was human. She was bound to make mistakes. When it came to pointing out her faults, never once did they take her youthful inexperience into account.

Such hypocrites!

Urgh! Now she sounded like her dead fish eyed student. Yes! Hikigaya Hachiman is entirely responsible for everything wrong with her life. He is a creepy little loner who has corrupted her entire existence by stepping into her humble home. She is doomed! Why did everything have to be so difficult? A teacher should influence their student, not the other way around. Urgh! Now he was making her doubt her own teaching skills, something she prided upon since she became a teacher in Sobu High.

Truly, Hikigaya Hachiman is evil. There! She said it!

Now she should stop lazing about and water those plants. They really look good in her bedroom. She kept them on top of her nightstand. After waking up every morning, she would freshen herself up by taking a long whiff from these beautiful flowers and every night, before getting ready for bed, she would run her fingers through their delicate petals and afterwards fall asleep, happy and content.

She loved those flowers, her beautiful white lilies. She watered them daily without a miss and she was even beginning to keep her curtains open to provide them with enough sunlight. She was seriously considering taking up gardening as a habit. She had plenty of bad habits, smoking and drinking mostly. Developing a good habit, for once would be a wonderful change.

She cursed her luck and called herself stupid for answering her doorbell without looking. She was proficient in martial arts and she could take care of herself, but unfortunately she had trouble remembering whether she was expecting one of her students to drop by, unannounced, at her house.

Her student, being one Hikigaya Hachiman, hardly elevated her worries.

She was thankful, she was wearing proper enough clothes to meet with a student, for she would have clearly died out of embarrassment had she been spotted, lounging around in one of her short shorts and tank tops, like she was used to in her home.

Of course, Hikigaya Hachiman made no comments on her choice of clothing. He sees her walking around in a lab coat, of all things, despite being a language teacher and he was used to her several eccentricities by now and turning a blind eye to them had become second nature to him.

"Can I come in sensei?"

"Sure Hikigaya. You can come in. You know where to sit, right?"

"On the sofa, sensei."

"Absolutely correct! At least you learnt something from our tutoring sessions. Speaking of tutoring sessions, remind me, did we have one planned for today?"

"No."

And he refused to utter another single syllable. He just went over and sat down on her sofa, placed his school bag on her coffee table and released a deep world weary sigh, which made him look like a person engaged in slave labour for many millenniums. Only he was capable of pulling this off and making it seem remotely believable

Of course his eyes made him look tired all the time, tired of schoolwork, tired of life, tired of mostly everything. One day he would say he was tired of getting tired.

Now, Hiratsuka Shizuka considered herself a polite woman, but even she was getting tired of his attitude. She wondered whether it would be terribly impolite of her to ask what the hell he was doing here right now. Then she remembered how he was used to getting treated badly by everyone and she decided why should she be left out of the fun.

She sat opposite to him on a chair and re-enacted their sitting arrangement from whenever she called him over for one of their tutoring sessions. He hated change and here she was pandering to his whims. She decided to remind him of his place.

"Why are you here Hikigaya?"

"Um, it's about a request for the service club. You wanted to keep yourself informed about the kind of requests we handle and well, here I am keeping you informed. Hope you are happy sensei."

She was the exact opposite of happy. Unhappy. Of course, her student already knew about it and this was only his way of making her feel miserable. She decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.

"We have these things called phones Hikigaya. Have you heard about them? You should buy one and while you're at it, you should also buy a new brain because your old one has clearly become completely rotten."

He looked hardly offended by her mockery. She wondered whether insults even registered into his brain these days. He had been called many horrible things and yet he acted unaffected. Of course this had to be an act. He showed a blank face to others, made his eyes look dead, and silently suffered the consequences of his actions. She often wondered whether she was wrong in her decision to place him in the service club. She may never know.

"Sensei, this new request. I would like to handle it personally."

Or maybe she would know right now.

"What kinda request are we talking about?"

She was well aware of many of the requests undertaken by the service club, and she had made it her business to know about the methods employed by all three club members, to solve each and every request brought to their collective attention.

She was not keeping scores like she promised when she forced Hikigaya to join this club. She doubted whether he remembered he was an unwilling participant in a contest where the winner could make the loser do anything.

Of course knowing him, he must have this little information locked somewhere in his rotten little brain. His memory was amazingly creepy and his resemblance to a stalker helped him gain his rotten reputation, and his unwillingness to change made him refrain from doing anything about it.

He would do anything to get the job done and that made her worry. Hearing him right now made her fidget in her chair and here she was, thinking she would have a nice time, all to herself, moments before he arrived and ruined everything.

This was so typical of him and here was another. He refused to let others in on his schemes, considering it an alternative of keeping others away from shouldering this terrible burden, even going to such lengths as to keep his own teacher in the dark. She wouldn't take any of that.

"Tell me Hikigaya. What is this request about?"

She was watching him think up a way to carefully evade the question. She almost found this entertaining. Here he was trying to figure out what to tell her and what to leave out. He would never tell her the complete truth. She never expected it of him for it was clearly not in his nature. But it was in her nature to coax, at least a little bit of truth out of him and if that meant beating some sense into him, then she held no qualms about employing violence.

She was not perfect and when she cracked her knuckles a certain someone found his self-preservation skills kicking in.

"T-Tobe. Tobe from our class, you know, the one in Hayama's clique. He came in with the request."

Warning bells began to sound in her head. She knew about his fake confession, about his latest attempt at social suicide. She was not pleased with what he did, but by the time she had found out she could do nothing. But not this time around. She would have her say.

"And what is the request?"

Her tone of voice made it certain that he would not be exiting her apartment without giving her every bit of information she asked. He already knew the consequences of refusing and decided to offer up Tobe as a sacrificial lamb.

"He wanted me to complete a videogame for him. He got stuck in difficult level and he thought I could help him out a little."

Hiratsuka Shizuka was confused. She needed a moment to take this all in.

When she became an advisor to the service club, she thought the club members would seek her consultation over difficult problems, which were beyond their capabilities. In her attempts to be a respectful teacher, she tried never to be judgmental to her students and did her utmost best to treat them with equality and fairness. But she had her limits. She tried again.

"He wants you to finish a videogame for him?"

"Yes."

She had better things to do and clearly this was a right moment to give her troubled student some good piece of advice.

"Refuse. Just flat out refuse."

He smiled and she couldn't help but shudder. He really looked creepy when he smiled. Forget about his eyes, his smile needed a lot of work to become acceptable in modern day society. Of course, the smile vanished as soon as it came. He must have realised he was being extremely creepy and he, once again, schooled his emotions perfectly.

"Thanks sensei. I will let him know tomorrow."

"And tell him he should be focusing on his studies instead of wasting his time around playing stupid videogames."

"…you can tell him yourself sensei"

"Maybe I will. Is there anything else you like to talk about Hikigaya?"

He looked at her for a moment then collected his bag from her coffee table and stood up.

"No sensei. I should better leave. I have school tomorrow."

"You make it sound like I don't."

"Well sensei, no one punches you in the gut for being late now, do they?"

"Oh shut up! You deserved getting punched for making such a lame excuse. Working corporate hours! Don't make me laugh, Hikigaya."

She smiled and walked with him till he was standing outside of her home.

They never exchange any parting greetings, he never says goodbye, and she never asks why. But she always ends up giving him a firm reminder.

"Remember Hikigaya, we have our tutoring sessions on weekends. Don't be late."

This was her invitation.

"Looking forward to it sensei"

This was his promise.

Both of them had nothing further to add. He was leaving her, but he would be back soon. She was watching him leave, knowing he would come back to her. They had a long journey ahead. They would be meeting one another, their interactions would grow, but for the time being they found an unknown comfort in keeping up appearances. Him, just showing up, meant something to her and her, just being there, meant something to him.

Meant what? Both of them didn't know. But for the time being both of them were content at remaining ignorantly blissful. She didn't ask what stopped him from calling her and having this entire conversation take place all over their respective mobile phones. However, she decided against searching for a deeper meaning in his visits. He was unwilling to tell her and she had reservations over asking him.

He was just around the neighbourhood and decided to drop by, she thought to herself.

A/N: Another Shizuka x Hachiman chapter for you! Hope you like it. Let me know in the reviews.

Now, onto the Ikebukuro fic –

Here is the result of the polls:

Option 1: Durarara Arc (feat. Izaya Orihara and other cool characters): 0

Option 2: Bakemonogatari Arc (feat. Mai Sakurajima): 5

Option 3: Rascals Doesn't Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Arc (feat. Hitagi Senjougahara): 9

Option 4: Cowboy Bebop Arc (featuring Spike Spiegel, Edward Elric etc): 0

So congratulations! The first arc will feature Hitagi Senjougahara!

Now I have some questions. Basically, it will be an Oregairu x Rascal Doesn't Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai x Bakemonogatari crossover. As such, which characters do you want to show up in the arc? Let's have a poll!

Poll#1: Which characters should be in the Hitagi Senjougahara arc of Ikebukuro?

Option 1: Rio Futaba.

Option 2: Sakuta Azusagawa.

Option 3: Koyomi Araragi.

Option 4: Izaya Orihara.

Option 5: Haruno Yukinoshita.

Please pick accordingly.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.