Chapter 3
After lunch, it was time for gym class and they had to say good bye to Nasty again, as it is customary in this school for the boys and girls to be in separate classes.
The Ma-Sho didn't like the gym class, they were pacing nervously on the field out back of the school, Sh'ten was visibly pale, hugging himself with Shin talking to him calmly. They felt foolish in the gym uniforms. What kind of training could one do dressed in nothing but, what seemed to be, undergarments?
Shin looked at Ryo. "They're starting to make me nervous, too, with all that pacing. Naaza's going to pull out all his hair at this rate!" Ryo nodded in agreement.
They had stayed together the whole day, wanting to stay with their own group rather than meet new people. It wasn't that the other students were unfriendly, but the warriors were more comfortable with each other. Perhaps it was because of the armor or maybe it was because they'd been through so much together. Who knows? The fact was that other people made them wary.
"Try to relax." Ryo advised his friend. "Maybe if you relax, Sh'ten will and then the others will follow his example."
"Then you relax, so Anubis will." Shin responded, teasingly. He had noticed Ryo pacing back and forth and flexing his hands convulsively. Ryo looked at the Warlord of darkness and saw that Anubis had been watching him with a wicked grin.
Ryo looked away uneasily. He knew there was something going on, something that Anubis seemed to be thinking, but Ryo just couldn't quite put his finger on it, though he was sure the others knew. He really wished someone would tell him what was going on.
Only Seiji, cool and confident as always, was simply standing there with his arms crossed and waiting. He, like everyone else, knew what was going on with Ryo and Anubis. However, it was simply to amusing to watch as Ryo tried to figure it out. He certainly wasn't going to tell Ryo what was going on.
Seiji looked toward the school doors that suddenly opened and the girl's class, usually held apart from the boy's class, came bubbling out. Odd.
Duo-
"What's going on?" Heero looked up to find Duo staring as the entire girl's gym class walked out onto the field, looking just as confused as the boys were. Duo's eyes landed on Nasty and he smiled.
"Finally! She's away from those others." He ran a hand over his hair and smiled.
She looks so cute in that gym uniform, Duo thought looking at her long legs and the lithe figure. This is it, my one chance. Duo ran his hands down his shirt to straighten it.
"What are you doing?" Heero asked.
Duo gave him a charming grin. "I'm going to ask her out, of coarse."
Heero lost interest at this point.
Giving the beautiful girl his best smile, Duo walked up to her, and she walked right past him as if she hadn't even seen him, and went to the boys she'd come in with.
"Damn!" Duo swore, walking back to Heero. He watched as Nasty was surrounded by her friends and started talking to them happily. "What's so special about them anyway? Why is she always with them?" He stopped when he saw Nasutei go to Shu and give him a kiss. "Aw, jeeze." His head hung with disappointment.
Heero looked up again and considered what his friend had said. "Something wrong?"
Duo tried to get over his irritation that the prettiest girl in school all ready had a boy friend. "Naw, not really. But have you noticed that they won't talk to anyone outside their little group? The blond guy completely ignored the girls who were trying to flirt with him and acted all shy. The guy with the blue hair is really rude." Duo had tried to talk to Anubis earlier, only to be sworn at viciously and he'd started to attack Duo, for no reason at all!
-Duo's flashback-
"Get out of my face, you effeminate little turd!" Anubis screamed at Duo.
Duo instantly went on the defensive. "I just asked where you got the scar!" He wasn't afraid of anyone, and he was ready to fight the blue haired guy. He was just trying to be friendly!
"It's none of your business!" Anubis raised his fist, but it was then that Ryo appeared and stepped between them.
Ryo waved his finger at Anubis, as if he were puppy who'd just done his business on the new carpet, ignoring Duo. "No! No! No! Bad! Bad! Bad!" Ryo grabbed Anubis' arm and pulled him away from Duo and Duo heard Ryo say, "You're not evil any more, don't go killing people because they offend you!"
"Awww, but Ryo...!" Anubis sulked as he was pulled away from the confused Duo.
"No! Bad Anubis!"
-End Flashback-
Duo brought his mind back to the present. "Still, I wonder why the girl's class is out here, too."
The question was answered when the new teacher, Mr. Gen, came out with a smile and a twinkle in his one good eye. "In my class, I expect the girls to compete with the boys on equal footing. I will have none of the nonsense that girls are weaker than boys. I have known one girl in particular, who could kick my ass any day of the week (Lady Kayura), so no pity because you happen to be a woman. Got it?" The large man with an eye patch walked up and down infront of the students, almost examining them. "I own you. While you are in my class, I own you. You will do as I tell you or you will suffer. Take your pick."
Some time while he was saying this, the new students all clustered up to the front, standing near Heero and Duo. Duo heard one of them say, "Is he joking?" One with shaggy black hair and a dark complexion asked. It was Ryo, one of the more friendly members of the group.
"No, I'm afraid not." This came from the thin red head, Sh'ten. "Rajura was always very serious with his teaching and this time will not be any different. He enjoys teaching just a little to much."
"You know him?" Duo looked at them only to be glared at by Shu and Anubis, but Sh'ten answered.
"Oh, yes. I do hope you are in good shape." Sh'ten looked down, examining Duo and Heero, and spoke with a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Fairly. Why?" Duo answered defensively. 'I am a Gundam pilot, after all!' Duo thought proudly.
Sh'ten turned to look at the white haired teacher who had yet to tell them what to do. "Because he will demand the best you can show him and Rajura settles for nothing but the best. I just don't know if your rather...undeveloped frames can handle it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Duo growled.
"It means that you're scrawny."
Mr. Rajura barked a command. "Run!"
The entire class stared at the teacher except for Sh'ten, Naaza, and Anubis who took off running as fast as they could around the track. Their friends took only a moment longer before they followed the first three, figuring that they knew what they were talking about, with Nasty going more slowly behind them.
Mr. Gen looked at the rest of them as if he'd expected this reaction. "May I ask what you are waiting for?"
"What makes you think you can say that you own us?" One boy shouted.
Mr. Gen centered on that voice and said softly, "Web of Deceit." Suddenly, there was a terrible scream and the boy who'd spoken fell on the ground screaming. Duo took off to help the boy with Heero following more slowly.
By the time Heero and Duo made it to his side, the boy was staring into space and shaking with fear. Duo looked up to find Mr. Gen swaggering over to them with a pleased smile on his face.
"What did you do to him?" Duo asked suspiciously. Was this some new kind of weapon? Was Mr. Gen from OZ, and if he was, why on earth would he attack a kid?
Mr. Gen smirked. "Its called discipline. Obviously, none of you has any. It is my duty as a teacher to give you discipline, a duty I enjoy immensely." Suddenly, the boy on the ground stopped screaming, but looked up at the teacher with horror in his eyes. "I said, run." Mr. Gen repeated himself.
The boy jumped up and began running as quickly as he could. The rest of the students followed. Duo and Heero looked at each other before shrugging and starting to run. It was only running, how bad could it be?
Mr. Gen kept them running for an hour. To most students, this was almost unbearable punishment. For Duo, it was difficult. For Heero, it was just another job.
At the end of the hour only a few students were left: the eight new boys, Duo, and Heero. Mr. Gen had made Nasutei, who'd tried to keep going, sit out. He had obviously seen that she was on the verge of passing out, but was to stubborn to let herself quit. When she was passing him, heaving and pale, Mr. Gen caught her arm. "Take a seat, Miss. Yagiyu."
Nasutei looked up at him. "I can keep going, Rajura." She was wheezing as she spoke and Mr. Gen gave her a slight smile.
"Commendable for you to say so, but the fact is that you cannot without doing yourself damage. I will not have the others saying that I hurt you. Sit."
Nasutei seemed to want to protest, but then she gave up fighting him and sat down in the grass, trying to catch her breath.
When the rest of the students gave up, Mr. Gen wasn't so kind hearted. He called them everything from lazy to weak and a few other things teachers probably shouldn't say. Mr. Gen looked at the remaining runners.
He nodded politely at some of the boys, but to the red, green, and blue haired boys, he glared. "I am terribly disappointed."
The red head took offense at this. "We did fine! It's not as if this is real training!" He put his hands on his hips and glared at Mr. Gen.
Now what was that supposed to mean? Duo wondered. What kind of training did they have?
Mr. Gen glared at Sh'ten. "You've known me how long, Sh'ten? What makes you think this isn't real?" His voice was threatening and he was stepping closer to Sh'ten who didn't back down.
Sh'ten waved his hand at the other students. "This isn't real competition and you know it! If we had really tried, we could have left them in the dust."
Well, that was a LITTLE insulting, Duo grumbled to himself, but had to admit it was probably true. Especially with the way they had easily run the arduous course. He was getting paranoid, Duo knew, when he immediately thought that they were trained by OZ and had been sent to spy on them. Jeeze, OZ didn't even know they went to school here!
"Exactly! You did very poorly out there and I don't like what I've seen. Those two kept up the lazy pace you set." The teacher pointed to Duo and Heero. Mr. Gen moved in until he was practically nose to nose with Sh'ten. "Two ordinary, practically untrained boys. They kept up your pace, Sh'ten. I am ashamed!" With that, Mr. Gen hauled off and struck Sh'ten on the side of his face with fierce force.
Sh'ten's head rocked back, but he didn't fall, and he looked back at Mr. Gen hatefully. "And I am tired of this game!" Sh'ten growled, and Shin went to his side, giving Mr. Gen a hard look. Shin touched Sh'ten's cheek tenderly, to make sure there was no real damage.
The entire class tensed. No one had expected Mr. Gen to be abusive, especially not in front of everyone. Duo would have jumped in, but Heero took a hold of his arm and held him back. Duo frowned and wondered why his friend didn't want to help Sh'ten. Relena also looked as if she wanted to jump in, but she was holding herself back.
Mr. Gen chuckled. "The game will end at the end of school when you will do extra training. I will not be disappointed by you again, Sh'ten." His glare turned to the other nervous boys with odd colored hair. "Any of you. The other's I can forgive, I have never had an opportunity to train them before now, but you..."
The bell rang, signaling the end of class and everyone gratefully stood to leave. No one was going to like this class. Duo started to walk away with Heero, but before he could Mr. Gen said, "A moment, Duo, Heero." They both turned, but stayed out of reach. They didn't want to give him an opportunity to attack as he had Sh'ten.
"What do you want?" Duo asked. He didn't like the way Sh'ten had been treated. The red head had done a fantastic job; he'd run faster than anyone with the special training the Gundam pilots had would. That, and the mysterious references hinted at when they were talking, said plainly that they all knew Mr. Gen before coming to this school. After all, how many students were on first name basis with their teachers? Some of them, at least, had some kind of training from him.
Mr. Gen smiled. "I wanted only to congratulate you on completing the hour. I find it unusual that you were able to do it."
"Lots of people can run for an hour." Duo said, trying to make it sound ordinary. After all, they didn't want to attract attention.
"But not a lot of high school kids and not at the pace the others set." He gestured toward Sh'ten who was rubbing his cheek, surrounded by his other friends. "Where were you trained?"
Duo tried to laugh it off. "Just natural ability, I guess."
Heero said nothing, but was looking at Mr. Gen as if he were curious.
"Well," Mr. Gen said softly. "I guess we'll just have to expand that natural ability and see how far we can stretch it."
Heero finally spoke. "It's been stretched about as far as it can go."
Mr. Gen shook his head. "We shall see. I think both of you are far more capable than you know. Goodbye, children." With that, Mr. Gen strode happily into the school.
Duo heard Sh'ten mumble. "I swear I'm gonna kill him this time! I am going to kill him!"
The green haired one, Naaza, laughed. "You couldn't kill him the last time, so what makes you think you can this time?"
Sh'ten grinned. "This time will be different! I know I can do it this time."
"If you hurt him, I'm going to poison your breakfast!"
Nasutei hushed them, suddenly seeing that Heero and Duo were watching them. "You can't just say these things, Sh'ten."
Sh'ten looked over at the two boys. "Why not? Are they a threat?"
Anubis gave a wolfish smile. "Yes, these are the perverts who grabbed Nasty and attacked us earlier. Perhaps they are a threat and we should take care of them."
Shu nodded in agreement. "I don't like them." He put a possessive arm around Nasty.
Duo tensed and he knew that Heero did, also. They hadn't come to school thinking that they would have to fight. At least, Duo hadn't. Heero had brought a gun this morning, if Duo remembered properly, and who knows what other weapons he had hidden on his person.
Again, Nasutei interrupted, rolling her eyes. "This is silly! We're going to be late to the next class. This is no place for fighting, Anubis, Shu! Besides, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it, he was just being nice. Come along."
With the air of a queen, Nasty led her boys away, leaving Duo and Heero alone. "Well, what do we do now?" Duo asked Heero. If they were supposed to fight, he'd like to know when to fight. Better to have it all out in the open instead of having enemies sneaking around.
Heero walked to the school. "We go to class."
Girl's teacher-
From the corner of the school, the girl's gym teacher watched the proceedings with interest as she wrote notes in a little notepad. This new teacher had given her the perfect opportunity to observe. He had said that he wanted to join the classes together, so she could have some time off.
All right, so it was a little insulting, but it did let her work on her other job. The notes were written quickly, as she watched the new students run the course set by Mr. Gen.
SANADA RYO- FAST, GOOD MUSCLE TONE
HASHIBA TOUMA- LIGHT BUILD, EXCELLENT ACADEMICS
SHU REI FUAN- STONG, VERY STRONG
HEERO YUY- EXCELLLENT ENDURANCE
DUO MAXWELL- TENATIOUS
The list went on and on, going on about good points of the students. She began to focus on several quickly, though. Anubis Doku, Date Seiji, and Shu Rei Fan, for strength, while she put stars next to Oni Sh'ten and Hashiba Touma's names for the intelligence she'd noted earlier. It was incredibly easy to get access to the other teacher records.
She smiled and picked up her little cell phone. "Hello, Mr. Treize. I think I've found some likely candidates for recruitment."
Relena-
Relena had been in the gym class and she hated what she saw. Mr. Gen obviously wasn't a very good teacher. He was practically torturing the students! So she brought up the subject to one of the other teachers in the next class. "He's abusing the students!" She almost yelled with righteous anger. "We all saw it, he hit poor Sh'ten, for no reason at all!" Relena was not a girl to let a wrong go without trying to right it.
The math teacher, Miss Connor, looked at Sh'ten who sat with his friends. "Is this true, Mr. Oni?"
Sh'ten cast an angry glance at Relena who didn't know why he should be angry with her. He stood up and faced the teacher. "No, Ma'am."
Relena, without invitation, stalked down to the front of the class where Sh'ten was standing and pulled his hair aside, revealing the still pink imprint of a hand. "How can you lie like that? He obviously hurt you. Everyone saw it."
Sh'ten pulled his hair back and covered his cheek. "Mr. Gen never hit me. You are imagining things." With that, he sat down in a dignified manner and closed his eyes.
This puzzled everyone, murmuring to each other, that they had all seen it quite plainly. Sh'ten, once he realized that Relena wasn't going to go away, glared up at Relena. "Keep you nose out of my business!"
Relena's eyes shot open at being spoken to in such a rude manner.
"Well, what about Justin?" Relena turned her attention toward the boy Mr. Gen had disciplined. The boy was looking down at the top of his desk and looked up at the mention of his name. "Mr. Gen did something to him, and we don't even know what, yet."
Miss Connor looked at Justin and his haunted expression. "Do you want to say anything, Justin?"
Justin looked terrified and shook his head vigorously before looking down again. Relena went back to her desk in disgust and anger. She knew there was something wrong with that new teacher. She just knew it!
Samurai and Ma-Sho -
"What did Rajura do to that boy?" Shin asked Sh'ten, appalled that something had frightened the boy so badly.
Sh'ten shrugged absently. "Same thing he does to us when he's teaching. The boy will get over it. We all did. I suppose you can call it an encouragement, of sorts. Just something to get him moving."
It was at this time that Rajura, or Mr. Gen as the rest of the school knew him, walked in. He smiled charmingly. "I was wondering if I could borrow Duo Maxwell for a short time?" He asked the other teacher.
After just hearing how this Mr. Gen had supposedly treated Oni Sh'ten, the math teacher, of coarse, did not seem especially thrilled to do this. "Well, we were just in the middle of something, actually..." She never finished the sentence because Rajura never stopped to hear her. He walked straight to Duo, grabbed him by the braid and pulled him roughly out of his chair.
"Come, boy. You're mine." Rajura said calmly, while Duo struggled, confused.
"Get off!" Duo demanded. "Let go of my hair!" He kicked and thrashed for all he was worth, but Mr. Gen didn't seem to notice. He pulled Duo down the isle of desks, with Duo on his back, fighting.
Now Miss Connor did take exception to this disruption and stopped Rajura with her hand on his chest. "Stop where you are, buster! How dare you come into my class and grab one of my students like that? I've heard some pretty disturbing things about your teaching methods today and I..." Rajura, letting go of Duo's braid for a moment, grabbed Miss Connor and pulled her into a long, passionate kiss. The kiss lasted nearly five minutes, until Miss Connor was limp and pale.
Finally, Rajura let her go, after hearing the sound of Naaza's jealous hissing, and set her on her feet. Miss Connor stood swaying there for a moment before she slowly opened her eyes. A huge smile graced her face. "OK, you can have him." She told Rajura happily with a glazed look in her eyes.
Relena stood up again. "What!? How can you do that?"
Miss Connor beamed at Rajura. "He can do anything he wants." She sighed, blissfully.
Duo looked at her with pleading eyes. "Don't abandon me!" He cried. God only knew what Mr. Gen was planning to do with him. Mr. Gen grabbed Duo's braid again and pulled him out the door with Duo casting one last pleading look at Heero. "Save me!"
Heero, thinking that it couldn't possibly be as Duo was making it out to be, ignored his melodramatic friend.
Relena, overcome by the absurdity of the situation, slumped down on her desk and buried her face in her arms. "This can't be right." She whispered to herself.
Duo-
"Why me?" Duo screamed in terror as the flaming log swung down at him from the rope and barely missed him. "Why me?" The ground opened up in a wide canyon in front of him and Duo was forced to jump up and grab hold of a vine that, of coarse, turned out to be a snake that tried to bite him with inch long fangs. "AHHHHHHH!" Duo punched the snake out of sheer desperation and let go just in time to land face first on the jungle floor in a mud puddle. "This can't be happening." He mumbled. Out of the darkness a voice shouted at him.
"Keep moving!" It was Mr. Gen. This was all his fault! "Don't slow down, fool! There is a time limit, you know!"
Duo jumped to his feet after the threat. The last time he hadn't listened and some kind of freaky monster had attacked him. Duo barreled through the jungle and tried not to think about the fact that fifteen minutes ago Mr. Gen had brought him out to the track field, the same field they'd just had gym class, and now he was in a tropical jungle filled with deadly booby traps. Sweat was pouring down his face and his clothes were sticking to his chest.
The night (Duo was fairly certain that only moments ago it had been broad daylight) was filled with the cries of exotic animals. Duo was scared and tired. He physically didn't usually do this sort of thing and he really didn't like doing it. I wanna go home! Duo though desperately. I want my Gundam! I want my teddy bear!
Suddenly, the jungle vanished and Duo found himself standing in the middle of the track field again. He looked around, confused, but there was only Mr. Gen looking at his stopwatch with a slight frown. Duo felt tears of joy fill his eyes.
"I'm alive!" He shouted happily, throwing his fist into the air triumphantly.
Mr. Gen snorted. "I suppose you might have done worse."
This got Duo's attention. "What do you mean? I was great!" Modesty was not one of Duo's flaws.
Mr. Gen shrugged and turned away. "It's a starting point, I guess. I will see you tomorrow at this same time for practice."
"Now wait a minute! What are you talking about? How did you do all that? How did I get to a jungle?"
"I have decided to train you as a warrior, Duo. You will get the finest training available to any human anywhere. As for the jungle," Mr. Gen looked at him with a slight smile. "That's a secret."
Duo was left alone in the track field and collapsed in sheer exhaustion and he really didn't want to think about what he'd just gone through. How could he tell Heero? Was it even real? It had to be a nightmare. That just couldn't have been real.
Duo sat in the field, staring into thin air for a long time. Maybe someone slipped something into his soda this morning.
Duo never mentioned to anyone what he'd just gone through, even though Mr. Gen did come through on his threat to 'teach' Duo and train him to be a warrior. After that one morning, Duo never found himself in jungles, only in the field being tortured by the gym teacher.
After lunch, it was time for gym class and they had to say good bye to Nasty again, as it is customary in this school for the boys and girls to be in separate classes.
The Ma-Sho didn't like the gym class, they were pacing nervously on the field out back of the school, Sh'ten was visibly pale, hugging himself with Shin talking to him calmly. They felt foolish in the gym uniforms. What kind of training could one do dressed in nothing but, what seemed to be, undergarments?
Shin looked at Ryo. "They're starting to make me nervous, too, with all that pacing. Naaza's going to pull out all his hair at this rate!" Ryo nodded in agreement.
They had stayed together the whole day, wanting to stay with their own group rather than meet new people. It wasn't that the other students were unfriendly, but the warriors were more comfortable with each other. Perhaps it was because of the armor or maybe it was because they'd been through so much together. Who knows? The fact was that other people made them wary.
"Try to relax." Ryo advised his friend. "Maybe if you relax, Sh'ten will and then the others will follow his example."
"Then you relax, so Anubis will." Shin responded, teasingly. He had noticed Ryo pacing back and forth and flexing his hands convulsively. Ryo looked at the Warlord of darkness and saw that Anubis had been watching him with a wicked grin.
Ryo looked away uneasily. He knew there was something going on, something that Anubis seemed to be thinking, but Ryo just couldn't quite put his finger on it, though he was sure the others knew. He really wished someone would tell him what was going on.
Only Seiji, cool and confident as always, was simply standing there with his arms crossed and waiting. He, like everyone else, knew what was going on with Ryo and Anubis. However, it was simply to amusing to watch as Ryo tried to figure it out. He certainly wasn't going to tell Ryo what was going on.
Seiji looked toward the school doors that suddenly opened and the girl's class, usually held apart from the boy's class, came bubbling out. Odd.
Duo-
"What's going on?" Heero looked up to find Duo staring as the entire girl's gym class walked out onto the field, looking just as confused as the boys were. Duo's eyes landed on Nasty and he smiled.
"Finally! She's away from those others." He ran a hand over his hair and smiled.
She looks so cute in that gym uniform, Duo thought looking at her long legs and the lithe figure. This is it, my one chance. Duo ran his hands down his shirt to straighten it.
"What are you doing?" Heero asked.
Duo gave him a charming grin. "I'm going to ask her out, of coarse."
Heero lost interest at this point.
Giving the beautiful girl his best smile, Duo walked up to her, and she walked right past him as if she hadn't even seen him, and went to the boys she'd come in with.
"Damn!" Duo swore, walking back to Heero. He watched as Nasty was surrounded by her friends and started talking to them happily. "What's so special about them anyway? Why is she always with them?" He stopped when he saw Nasutei go to Shu and give him a kiss. "Aw, jeeze." His head hung with disappointment.
Heero looked up again and considered what his friend had said. "Something wrong?"
Duo tried to get over his irritation that the prettiest girl in school all ready had a boy friend. "Naw, not really. But have you noticed that they won't talk to anyone outside their little group? The blond guy completely ignored the girls who were trying to flirt with him and acted all shy. The guy with the blue hair is really rude." Duo had tried to talk to Anubis earlier, only to be sworn at viciously and he'd started to attack Duo, for no reason at all!
-Duo's flashback-
"Get out of my face, you effeminate little turd!" Anubis screamed at Duo.
Duo instantly went on the defensive. "I just asked where you got the scar!" He wasn't afraid of anyone, and he was ready to fight the blue haired guy. He was just trying to be friendly!
"It's none of your business!" Anubis raised his fist, but it was then that Ryo appeared and stepped between them.
Ryo waved his finger at Anubis, as if he were puppy who'd just done his business on the new carpet, ignoring Duo. "No! No! No! Bad! Bad! Bad!" Ryo grabbed Anubis' arm and pulled him away from Duo and Duo heard Ryo say, "You're not evil any more, don't go killing people because they offend you!"
"Awww, but Ryo...!" Anubis sulked as he was pulled away from the confused Duo.
"No! Bad Anubis!"
-End Flashback-
Duo brought his mind back to the present. "Still, I wonder why the girl's class is out here, too."
The question was answered when the new teacher, Mr. Gen, came out with a smile and a twinkle in his one good eye. "In my class, I expect the girls to compete with the boys on equal footing. I will have none of the nonsense that girls are weaker than boys. I have known one girl in particular, who could kick my ass any day of the week (Lady Kayura), so no pity because you happen to be a woman. Got it?" The large man with an eye patch walked up and down infront of the students, almost examining them. "I own you. While you are in my class, I own you. You will do as I tell you or you will suffer. Take your pick."
Some time while he was saying this, the new students all clustered up to the front, standing near Heero and Duo. Duo heard one of them say, "Is he joking?" One with shaggy black hair and a dark complexion asked. It was Ryo, one of the more friendly members of the group.
"No, I'm afraid not." This came from the thin red head, Sh'ten. "Rajura was always very serious with his teaching and this time will not be any different. He enjoys teaching just a little to much."
"You know him?" Duo looked at them only to be glared at by Shu and Anubis, but Sh'ten answered.
"Oh, yes. I do hope you are in good shape." Sh'ten looked down, examining Duo and Heero, and spoke with a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Fairly. Why?" Duo answered defensively. 'I am a Gundam pilot, after all!' Duo thought proudly.
Sh'ten turned to look at the white haired teacher who had yet to tell them what to do. "Because he will demand the best you can show him and Rajura settles for nothing but the best. I just don't know if your rather...undeveloped frames can handle it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Duo growled.
"It means that you're scrawny."
Mr. Rajura barked a command. "Run!"
The entire class stared at the teacher except for Sh'ten, Naaza, and Anubis who took off running as fast as they could around the track. Their friends took only a moment longer before they followed the first three, figuring that they knew what they were talking about, with Nasty going more slowly behind them.
Mr. Gen looked at the rest of them as if he'd expected this reaction. "May I ask what you are waiting for?"
"What makes you think you can say that you own us?" One boy shouted.
Mr. Gen centered on that voice and said softly, "Web of Deceit." Suddenly, there was a terrible scream and the boy who'd spoken fell on the ground screaming. Duo took off to help the boy with Heero following more slowly.
By the time Heero and Duo made it to his side, the boy was staring into space and shaking with fear. Duo looked up to find Mr. Gen swaggering over to them with a pleased smile on his face.
"What did you do to him?" Duo asked suspiciously. Was this some new kind of weapon? Was Mr. Gen from OZ, and if he was, why on earth would he attack a kid?
Mr. Gen smirked. "Its called discipline. Obviously, none of you has any. It is my duty as a teacher to give you discipline, a duty I enjoy immensely." Suddenly, the boy on the ground stopped screaming, but looked up at the teacher with horror in his eyes. "I said, run." Mr. Gen repeated himself.
The boy jumped up and began running as quickly as he could. The rest of the students followed. Duo and Heero looked at each other before shrugging and starting to run. It was only running, how bad could it be?
Mr. Gen kept them running for an hour. To most students, this was almost unbearable punishment. For Duo, it was difficult. For Heero, it was just another job.
At the end of the hour only a few students were left: the eight new boys, Duo, and Heero. Mr. Gen had made Nasutei, who'd tried to keep going, sit out. He had obviously seen that she was on the verge of passing out, but was to stubborn to let herself quit. When she was passing him, heaving and pale, Mr. Gen caught her arm. "Take a seat, Miss. Yagiyu."
Nasutei looked up at him. "I can keep going, Rajura." She was wheezing as she spoke and Mr. Gen gave her a slight smile.
"Commendable for you to say so, but the fact is that you cannot without doing yourself damage. I will not have the others saying that I hurt you. Sit."
Nasutei seemed to want to protest, but then she gave up fighting him and sat down in the grass, trying to catch her breath.
When the rest of the students gave up, Mr. Gen wasn't so kind hearted. He called them everything from lazy to weak and a few other things teachers probably shouldn't say. Mr. Gen looked at the remaining runners.
He nodded politely at some of the boys, but to the red, green, and blue haired boys, he glared. "I am terribly disappointed."
The red head took offense at this. "We did fine! It's not as if this is real training!" He put his hands on his hips and glared at Mr. Gen.
Now what was that supposed to mean? Duo wondered. What kind of training did they have?
Mr. Gen glared at Sh'ten. "You've known me how long, Sh'ten? What makes you think this isn't real?" His voice was threatening and he was stepping closer to Sh'ten who didn't back down.
Sh'ten waved his hand at the other students. "This isn't real competition and you know it! If we had really tried, we could have left them in the dust."
Well, that was a LITTLE insulting, Duo grumbled to himself, but had to admit it was probably true. Especially with the way they had easily run the arduous course. He was getting paranoid, Duo knew, when he immediately thought that they were trained by OZ and had been sent to spy on them. Jeeze, OZ didn't even know they went to school here!
"Exactly! You did very poorly out there and I don't like what I've seen. Those two kept up the lazy pace you set." The teacher pointed to Duo and Heero. Mr. Gen moved in until he was practically nose to nose with Sh'ten. "Two ordinary, practically untrained boys. They kept up your pace, Sh'ten. I am ashamed!" With that, Mr. Gen hauled off and struck Sh'ten on the side of his face with fierce force.
Sh'ten's head rocked back, but he didn't fall, and he looked back at Mr. Gen hatefully. "And I am tired of this game!" Sh'ten growled, and Shin went to his side, giving Mr. Gen a hard look. Shin touched Sh'ten's cheek tenderly, to make sure there was no real damage.
The entire class tensed. No one had expected Mr. Gen to be abusive, especially not in front of everyone. Duo would have jumped in, but Heero took a hold of his arm and held him back. Duo frowned and wondered why his friend didn't want to help Sh'ten. Relena also looked as if she wanted to jump in, but she was holding herself back.
Mr. Gen chuckled. "The game will end at the end of school when you will do extra training. I will not be disappointed by you again, Sh'ten." His glare turned to the other nervous boys with odd colored hair. "Any of you. The other's I can forgive, I have never had an opportunity to train them before now, but you..."
The bell rang, signaling the end of class and everyone gratefully stood to leave. No one was going to like this class. Duo started to walk away with Heero, but before he could Mr. Gen said, "A moment, Duo, Heero." They both turned, but stayed out of reach. They didn't want to give him an opportunity to attack as he had Sh'ten.
"What do you want?" Duo asked. He didn't like the way Sh'ten had been treated. The red head had done a fantastic job; he'd run faster than anyone with the special training the Gundam pilots had would. That, and the mysterious references hinted at when they were talking, said plainly that they all knew Mr. Gen before coming to this school. After all, how many students were on first name basis with their teachers? Some of them, at least, had some kind of training from him.
Mr. Gen smiled. "I wanted only to congratulate you on completing the hour. I find it unusual that you were able to do it."
"Lots of people can run for an hour." Duo said, trying to make it sound ordinary. After all, they didn't want to attract attention.
"But not a lot of high school kids and not at the pace the others set." He gestured toward Sh'ten who was rubbing his cheek, surrounded by his other friends. "Where were you trained?"
Duo tried to laugh it off. "Just natural ability, I guess."
Heero said nothing, but was looking at Mr. Gen as if he were curious.
"Well," Mr. Gen said softly. "I guess we'll just have to expand that natural ability and see how far we can stretch it."
Heero finally spoke. "It's been stretched about as far as it can go."
Mr. Gen shook his head. "We shall see. I think both of you are far more capable than you know. Goodbye, children." With that, Mr. Gen strode happily into the school.
Duo heard Sh'ten mumble. "I swear I'm gonna kill him this time! I am going to kill him!"
The green haired one, Naaza, laughed. "You couldn't kill him the last time, so what makes you think you can this time?"
Sh'ten grinned. "This time will be different! I know I can do it this time."
"If you hurt him, I'm going to poison your breakfast!"
Nasutei hushed them, suddenly seeing that Heero and Duo were watching them. "You can't just say these things, Sh'ten."
Sh'ten looked over at the two boys. "Why not? Are they a threat?"
Anubis gave a wolfish smile. "Yes, these are the perverts who grabbed Nasty and attacked us earlier. Perhaps they are a threat and we should take care of them."
Shu nodded in agreement. "I don't like them." He put a possessive arm around Nasty.
Duo tensed and he knew that Heero did, also. They hadn't come to school thinking that they would have to fight. At least, Duo hadn't. Heero had brought a gun this morning, if Duo remembered properly, and who knows what other weapons he had hidden on his person.
Again, Nasutei interrupted, rolling her eyes. "This is silly! We're going to be late to the next class. This is no place for fighting, Anubis, Shu! Besides, I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it, he was just being nice. Come along."
With the air of a queen, Nasty led her boys away, leaving Duo and Heero alone. "Well, what do we do now?" Duo asked Heero. If they were supposed to fight, he'd like to know when to fight. Better to have it all out in the open instead of having enemies sneaking around.
Heero walked to the school. "We go to class."
Girl's teacher-
From the corner of the school, the girl's gym teacher watched the proceedings with interest as she wrote notes in a little notepad. This new teacher had given her the perfect opportunity to observe. He had said that he wanted to join the classes together, so she could have some time off.
All right, so it was a little insulting, but it did let her work on her other job. The notes were written quickly, as she watched the new students run the course set by Mr. Gen.
SANADA RYO- FAST, GOOD MUSCLE TONE
HASHIBA TOUMA- LIGHT BUILD, EXCELLENT ACADEMICS
SHU REI FUAN- STONG, VERY STRONG
HEERO YUY- EXCELLLENT ENDURANCE
DUO MAXWELL- TENATIOUS
The list went on and on, going on about good points of the students. She began to focus on several quickly, though. Anubis Doku, Date Seiji, and Shu Rei Fan, for strength, while she put stars next to Oni Sh'ten and Hashiba Touma's names for the intelligence she'd noted earlier. It was incredibly easy to get access to the other teacher records.
She smiled and picked up her little cell phone. "Hello, Mr. Treize. I think I've found some likely candidates for recruitment."
Relena-
Relena had been in the gym class and she hated what she saw. Mr. Gen obviously wasn't a very good teacher. He was practically torturing the students! So she brought up the subject to one of the other teachers in the next class. "He's abusing the students!" She almost yelled with righteous anger. "We all saw it, he hit poor Sh'ten, for no reason at all!" Relena was not a girl to let a wrong go without trying to right it.
The math teacher, Miss Connor, looked at Sh'ten who sat with his friends. "Is this true, Mr. Oni?"
Sh'ten cast an angry glance at Relena who didn't know why he should be angry with her. He stood up and faced the teacher. "No, Ma'am."
Relena, without invitation, stalked down to the front of the class where Sh'ten was standing and pulled his hair aside, revealing the still pink imprint of a hand. "How can you lie like that? He obviously hurt you. Everyone saw it."
Sh'ten pulled his hair back and covered his cheek. "Mr. Gen never hit me. You are imagining things." With that, he sat down in a dignified manner and closed his eyes.
This puzzled everyone, murmuring to each other, that they had all seen it quite plainly. Sh'ten, once he realized that Relena wasn't going to go away, glared up at Relena. "Keep you nose out of my business!"
Relena's eyes shot open at being spoken to in such a rude manner.
"Well, what about Justin?" Relena turned her attention toward the boy Mr. Gen had disciplined. The boy was looking down at the top of his desk and looked up at the mention of his name. "Mr. Gen did something to him, and we don't even know what, yet."
Miss Connor looked at Justin and his haunted expression. "Do you want to say anything, Justin?"
Justin looked terrified and shook his head vigorously before looking down again. Relena went back to her desk in disgust and anger. She knew there was something wrong with that new teacher. She just knew it!
Samurai and Ma-Sho -
"What did Rajura do to that boy?" Shin asked Sh'ten, appalled that something had frightened the boy so badly.
Sh'ten shrugged absently. "Same thing he does to us when he's teaching. The boy will get over it. We all did. I suppose you can call it an encouragement, of sorts. Just something to get him moving."
It was at this time that Rajura, or Mr. Gen as the rest of the school knew him, walked in. He smiled charmingly. "I was wondering if I could borrow Duo Maxwell for a short time?" He asked the other teacher.
After just hearing how this Mr. Gen had supposedly treated Oni Sh'ten, the math teacher, of coarse, did not seem especially thrilled to do this. "Well, we were just in the middle of something, actually..." She never finished the sentence because Rajura never stopped to hear her. He walked straight to Duo, grabbed him by the braid and pulled him roughly out of his chair.
"Come, boy. You're mine." Rajura said calmly, while Duo struggled, confused.
"Get off!" Duo demanded. "Let go of my hair!" He kicked and thrashed for all he was worth, but Mr. Gen didn't seem to notice. He pulled Duo down the isle of desks, with Duo on his back, fighting.
Now Miss Connor did take exception to this disruption and stopped Rajura with her hand on his chest. "Stop where you are, buster! How dare you come into my class and grab one of my students like that? I've heard some pretty disturbing things about your teaching methods today and I..." Rajura, letting go of Duo's braid for a moment, grabbed Miss Connor and pulled her into a long, passionate kiss. The kiss lasted nearly five minutes, until Miss Connor was limp and pale.
Finally, Rajura let her go, after hearing the sound of Naaza's jealous hissing, and set her on her feet. Miss Connor stood swaying there for a moment before she slowly opened her eyes. A huge smile graced her face. "OK, you can have him." She told Rajura happily with a glazed look in her eyes.
Relena stood up again. "What!? How can you do that?"
Miss Connor beamed at Rajura. "He can do anything he wants." She sighed, blissfully.
Duo looked at her with pleading eyes. "Don't abandon me!" He cried. God only knew what Mr. Gen was planning to do with him. Mr. Gen grabbed Duo's braid again and pulled him out the door with Duo casting one last pleading look at Heero. "Save me!"
Heero, thinking that it couldn't possibly be as Duo was making it out to be, ignored his melodramatic friend.
Relena, overcome by the absurdity of the situation, slumped down on her desk and buried her face in her arms. "This can't be right." She whispered to herself.
Duo-
"Why me?" Duo screamed in terror as the flaming log swung down at him from the rope and barely missed him. "Why me?" The ground opened up in a wide canyon in front of him and Duo was forced to jump up and grab hold of a vine that, of coarse, turned out to be a snake that tried to bite him with inch long fangs. "AHHHHHHH!" Duo punched the snake out of sheer desperation and let go just in time to land face first on the jungle floor in a mud puddle. "This can't be happening." He mumbled. Out of the darkness a voice shouted at him.
"Keep moving!" It was Mr. Gen. This was all his fault! "Don't slow down, fool! There is a time limit, you know!"
Duo jumped to his feet after the threat. The last time he hadn't listened and some kind of freaky monster had attacked him. Duo barreled through the jungle and tried not to think about the fact that fifteen minutes ago Mr. Gen had brought him out to the track field, the same field they'd just had gym class, and now he was in a tropical jungle filled with deadly booby traps. Sweat was pouring down his face and his clothes were sticking to his chest.
The night (Duo was fairly certain that only moments ago it had been broad daylight) was filled with the cries of exotic animals. Duo was scared and tired. He physically didn't usually do this sort of thing and he really didn't like doing it. I wanna go home! Duo though desperately. I want my Gundam! I want my teddy bear!
Suddenly, the jungle vanished and Duo found himself standing in the middle of the track field again. He looked around, confused, but there was only Mr. Gen looking at his stopwatch with a slight frown. Duo felt tears of joy fill his eyes.
"I'm alive!" He shouted happily, throwing his fist into the air triumphantly.
Mr. Gen snorted. "I suppose you might have done worse."
This got Duo's attention. "What do you mean? I was great!" Modesty was not one of Duo's flaws.
Mr. Gen shrugged and turned away. "It's a starting point, I guess. I will see you tomorrow at this same time for practice."
"Now wait a minute! What are you talking about? How did you do all that? How did I get to a jungle?"
"I have decided to train you as a warrior, Duo. You will get the finest training available to any human anywhere. As for the jungle," Mr. Gen looked at him with a slight smile. "That's a secret."
Duo was left alone in the track field and collapsed in sheer exhaustion and he really didn't want to think about what he'd just gone through. How could he tell Heero? Was it even real? It had to be a nightmare. That just couldn't have been real.
Duo sat in the field, staring into thin air for a long time. Maybe someone slipped something into his soda this morning.
Duo never mentioned to anyone what he'd just gone through, even though Mr. Gen did come through on his threat to 'teach' Duo and train him to be a warrior. After that one morning, Duo never found himself in jungles, only in the field being tortured by the gym teacher.
