Hoshigumi - Watashi Ni!
"Could Gendo Kamijin please report to the headmaster after school, Gendo Kamijin to the headmaster after school, thank you!" Gendo turned to the rest of the team-members in the class – the Twins and Jenny – and looked aggrieved.
"What have I done?" Jessica giggled at his expression. Rebecca looked sternly at her sister. Jennifer, as always, looked innocent. "It's something to do with you three, I know it. You're in big trouble if it's anything remotely bad, you know that." Just then, the bell rang, and the class was in uproar. Gendo silently disappeared to the office and Jenny turned to the Twins.
"What did you do?"
"We volunteered him to teach martial arts. And Vlad is the school's new guitar teacher. Don't worry, Maiku won't be left out, but he won't tell us anything that he's good at," they informed her.
"I didn't know you talked to him," said Jenny.
"Oh yeah. He's really nice when you get to know him. Plus, he's absolutely gorgeous."
"I'll agree with that last," Jenny said, after some consideration. "But he isn't nice. He pulled a sword on me!"
"Actually, you did first. He just manifested Spirit energy, and you pulled a sword."
"You've been talking to him, haven't you? Mind asking why he started charging his energy?
"Because he was feeling threatened."
"Oh, yeah. Brilliant reason to get ready to blow someone's head off. And turn it into Mick Jagger, holding a Day-Glo green Gibson Explorer with one string missing, with an unidentified large bird on his head and wearing a pair of Y-fronts and a rubber dinghy, in his case. Maybe he should do classes in Chaos Theory and quantum mechanics," she added, after a moment's thought.
"Nah," said Rebecca. "Not nasty enough."
"I thought you liked him," Jenny asked.
"We do. But liking someone is not a reason to be nice to them," pointed out Jessica seriously.
"You two are weird." Reaching the yard, they went to walk home with Kimiko.
"Do I need to say it again? My skills are not the type of things that should be taught to irresponsible pupils. Teachers will be in fear for their lives."
"You don't need to teach all of your skills, just…the safer ones."
"They are the safer ones. I could bring down a large building with the more dangerous ones, given a few minutes."
"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear. You will do these classes, or you will mysteriously fail your GCSE's…miserably and repeatedly. Understand."
"Yes sir," said Gendo resignedly. Inwardly, however, he was grinning.
"You will all be expected to go to these training classes," said Kaede. "Gendo and the adults are the only ones with the level of ability required for the team."
You are pervy git. Now you get to see Jenny in Gi. I am not stupid, I know vy you do zis.
My friend, I am shocked you can stand there and make such an unfair accusation. I would never watch a girl change-
But half naked and sweating iss not changink, iss it? Now you haff gut excuse. Vell, qvite gut.
You'll be going?
Off course. I may pull a few girls viz my hunky body. Vlad transmitted an image of Vlad's head on a wrestlers body. Gendo pulled an image of an extremely skinny person in huge boxer shorts from his memory and replaced the head with Vlad's, then sent it back. Vlad turned red.
Anyway, I thought you had Maria.
Ah, iss not so gut. All she want iss sex.
And…that's bad?
You shut see how she vant me to dress, zo. Zis bissarre lezzer zink. Ack!
You always wear leather.
Not lezzer like zis. I vood look like Marilyn Manson, but less masculine. Ack!
You should go out with one of the Twins. I think they'd suit you.
Ah, nyet. I have competition there. They both like zat new guy, Maiku.
Ah, said a third voice. Competition isn't a bad thing. In this case, the Twins are getting an excellent deal, because Vlad and Maiku will try to outdo each other.
Jenny, asked Gendo. How'd you receive a private conversation?
You're a good teacher.
Teacher? I didn't teach you any telepathic skills.
You use astral projection every night, and I watch.
Hah! You are pervert! I knew it!
NO! shouted both Gendo and Jenny.
That's just…
Eew. No offence, said Jenny.
None taken.
Same here. Just…Gendo watching me…eew.
Me watching Jenny… Gendo fought very hard to stifle a nosebleed. He had worked hard to build up and maintain his image, and was the most wanted man in the school by the girls' standards, and he wasn't going to let a simple matter of blood pressure spoil it. He decided he would have to swoop soon. That's just wrong. No offence. Anyway, how do you know about competition?
Kaede signed me up for Economics. Why are we still telepathising? Everyone's gone.
"Good point," said Gendo, leaving the mental link. Vlad and Jenny followed suite. I'm going to ask her out soon, he told Vlad.
"You cheat! You were talking about me - I know it! You waited until I left the link!"
"Don't vorry. Iss not bad sing. Wery gut sing for bose of you. OWW!"
"No further now. Or I'll hurt you some more," said Gendo, putting pressure on Vlad's wrist. Jenny stifled a giggle.
"Right, before you warm up, I want you to tell me what you know about martial arts," said Gendo, almost a week later.
"Err, you get to kick peoples guts out," said someone at the back of the group.
"Why would you want to do that? That would be dishonourable. Next!"
"You use your mental energy to fight."
"Good." He looked to see who had spoken. It was Jessica.
"We did a project about Japan a few years ago, and I read a book about religion and martial arts and stuff," she explained.
"Swot!" someone shouted. It was the same person who had spoken earlier.
"You. Come here. If you know so much about martial arts, we will fight one-on-one." Several people paled – the boy he challenged was at least 6'4'', and probably twice Gendo's weight. Two people didn't – Gendo, because he knew his own abilities, and Jessica, because she had watched him train with her sister and Jenny, and knew his strength better than anyone else. The other two had just been looking at him, not his fighting. "Bow," ordered Gendo. Both combatants did so. Gendo straightened up quickly, backflipping and throwing himself forward feet-first, catching his opponent full in the jaw. The force of the impact knocked him back – obviously, he was heavier than Gendo had expected. Gendo jumped forward, catching his opponent with several open-handed punches. He was shocked to find himself picked up and thrown across the room. Jessica paled. Gendo staggered to his feet and remained doubled over.
"Gendo! Concede! Give him a friendly handshake!" cried Jessica. His opponent approached him and stood just behind and to one side of Gendo, waiting for him to stand up again. Now Gendo went into action. He drove his elbow backwards hard and felt a rib crack under the force. He then brought his fist up into the face of his enemy, breaking his nose. He then span and kicked the gibbering wreck in the back of the knees, knocking him to the ground.
He stood with his back to the floored titan, waiting for a comment. Finally, it came.
"You said…you…conceded."
"I did no such thing. Jessica suggested a tactic, disguising it as a plea for my safety."
"I wasn't sure if you had read the books yet."
"Of course. Vimes is my favourite character."
"Same here," said Jessica. For a minute they looked at each other, then Jessica looked away. Gendo could outstare Granny Weatherwax, she decided, let alone a snake. Snakes would blink just to get away from that stare.
"What's your name?" he asked the lump of quivering flesh on the floor.
"Dud…dud…Dudley…Batree."
"Can you walk?"
"Ye-"
"Then get out and don't bother coming back."
The next few weeks passed quickly. Vlad finally broke up with Maria, much to her disappointment. Gendo finished the twenty-seven books that Jessica lent him in record time. Jessica emerged as the self-defence class's top pupil, with Jennifer scoring the equivalent of a B – her grade in everything for the last eight years. Gendo asked Jennifer to the Hallowe'en dance, but was told that there was someone else she wanted to go with. Dave got Dark Sun a series of weekly gigs starting in the New Year, every Friday night for six months, and Sarah organised for the band to play at the aforementioned Hallowe'en dance. Finally, Thursday October 31, the day of the much-awaited dance, arrived.
"Tell me again why your school is having a Hallowe'en dance?"
"Because the headmaster is American. You think that's bad, well, we're having a Prom in July." Sarah rolled her eyes. Dave climbed into the Cadillac, followed by Jennifer. She was wearing a long blue skirt and a white lacy top.
"You look great, Jenny," said Gendo.
"You're too late. I told you, I have a date already."
"Oh, he asked you?" Jennifer squirmed.
"Not…exactly."
"You asked him?"
"Well, again, not exactly. Can we change the subject please?"
"Sorry."
"Don't worry, I'll introduce you when we get there. And you might want to dedicate a song to Jessica. She was very annoyed when you didn't ask her."
"I didn't know she wanted me to. Anyway, I've got to sing all night."
"Well, she didn't know that. And for someone so supposedly intelligent, you are very dense," she said, with a little too much force. They sat in silence for the rest of the trip. Finally, Dave pulled up next to Vlad's brand-new, second-hand van with "Dark Sun" painted on the side. Jennifer got out, followed by Gendo.
"Come here, I'll introduce you to my date," she said, grabbing Gendo and walking towards the school entrance.
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Ooh, never done a cliff-hanger before. I'll wait a while before posting the next chapter, I think… About the dig at Manson: I like him, but Vlad doesn't. Don't argue. And yes, Jessica is a Discworld fan. So is Rebecca, but she only reads them in the hope that there will be more with Captain Carrot in. I realise there are only 26 at the moment (I have every single one) but I'm guessing (hoping) there will be another out by then.
