As soon as the sun was up, Emi was running off to the girls' dorm for their little "chat".
Of course, she had had to check that Misawa was well enough to be left with the assistant. His throat was still bad, but at least his fever had dropped into a more acceptable range. The coughing was virtually gone.
She had left him doing more problems in the math textbook.
When Emi reached the dorm, she noted that the girls were just waking up. The dining hall was about half-full of girls hunched sleepily over bowls of rice or cereal.
Well, she'd just have to wait a bit. It would be no use lecturing when no one was alert enough to listen!
However, Emi couldn't help but get a bit impatient, especially since this was so important and everyone was going so slowly.
Slowly, the dining hall filled up. It was only when everybody was accounted for that someone finally noticed that Emi was there.
Apparently,Emi had a less than happy expression on her face, because one girl asked, "What's wrong, Ayukawa-sensei?"
Emi answered, "Finish your breakfast and get dressed. We all have something very important to discuss."
At those words, a curious murmur spread through the room. The girls seemed to make more of an effort to get ready quickly.
Finally, everybody was more or less ready.
Emi ushered everybody into the lobby.
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Once they were there, Emi wasted no time in beginning her lecture.
"Okay everybody, I need for everybody to pay close attention. I am here to discuss the spreading of rumors that has been going on recently in this dorm."
At this, some girls looked at each other as if to silently say, "Well, I certainly haven't been spreading rumors..."
Emi pressed on.
"These rumors seem to have little to no basis in truth, and are apparently designed to torment a well-behaved and polite student at this school. But that is not the worst part."
Now the girls seemed to be more than a bit freaked out.
Emi added a pause for dramatic effect, then stated, "I am even beginning to suspect physical bullying may be involved..."
At this, one girl piped up, "Ayukawa-sensei, we would never hit anyone without reason! You know that!"
'Do I really?', thought Emi briefly. Instead, she said, "All of this is getting out of hand, so I have decided to nip it in the bud right here and now."
She then told the girls everything that she had seen and heard over the past forty-eight hours.
All at once, the girls started talking. Dozens of questions, comments, and complaints were being thrown out simultaneously.
"What are you talking about?"
"But Ayukawa-sensei, it's all true!"
"I heard that stuff from my friend who heard it from Momoe, but I just didn't believe it!"
"But it's the truth!"
"I didn't do anything. Don't punish me!"
"I'm confused..."
"BUT IT'S TRUE!"
"SHUT UP!" Emi finally bellowed.
Everyone shut up immediately.
She apologized, and then said, "Now, what makes you think it's true?"
Just as she had feared, the round of babbling started over again.
Emi quickly put it to a stop with, "One person at a time! Junko may go first."
Junko said in a rush, "There was this amazon and she defeated Misawa-san in a duel and she used a magic spell and it turned Misawa-san into a pervert and..."
As the explanation continued, Emi thought she vaguely remembered something like that happening. She doubted the magic spell part, however.
Junko ended her run-on sentence with, "So he says bad things to girls and tries to spy on them and that's maybe why they hit him!"
Asuka slumped down in her chair. Obviously, she knew something that Emi did not know.
Emi demanded Asuka to speak up.
Asuka admitted that she had been a girl who had hit Misawa. Apparently, she had been in a bad mood, and Misawa had said some remark which could be interpreted as perverted.
All the girls shouted in unison, "See! It's true!"
Emi replied, "Okay, that was just one incident. And Asuka is sorry for overreacting, AREN'T YOU, ASUKA?"
Emi looked so scary that all Asuka could do was nod meekly.
Emi continued, "Now, as for the other stuff...has anyone actually SEEN Misawa do all these things?"
The general consensus was no, THEY THEMSELVES hadn't, but they had heard it from a friend of a friend of a friend, so it MUST be true!
Emi said exasperatedly, "Don't you all get it? Nothing HAPPENED! You just convinced yourselves that it did! Rumors get people nowhere, so I want you all to stop spreading these lies right now!"
"Yes, Ayukawa-sensei," muttered everyone.
"Good. Now, it's time for you all to go to class. Now quit complaining-you know Saturday's a half-day!"
Everybody shuffled off.
As Emi walked over to the gymnasium to get class set up, she was glad that she took care of one thing. However, she had a feeling that reversing the damage caused by the rumors might be much more difficult.
She would have to find a way to get through to Misawa. But how?