"Miss Chisa Yukizome , correct?" Mr. Kirigiri stares at the application form before him with a raised brow.
The bright young woman who sat in front of his desk nods. "Yep, that's me."
The headmaster hums, trying to think on how to tactfully voice his thoughts without offending her. "So, Ms. Yukizome, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it or that I doubt your abilities. It's just that, it's a little unusual for a graduated Ultimate like you to...uh..." He clears his throat. "Well...choose this kind of career path that's so different from their comfort zone."
"Oh, is that so?" Chisa's chipper tone remains the same, but it didn't mean that the headmaster's words flew over her head, far from it, actually. "I don't see any problems with that, honestly. Personally, I feel that teaching the next generation of Ultimate students would be a lot more productive use of my time rather than spending most of it in the ring."
Mr. Kirigiri nods and clasps his hands. "I see. Either way, I truly appreciate you coming in to take over Kizakura's teaching duty."
As soon as the scout heard his friend mention him by name, he chortles. "I've told Jin many times before, I'm just not cut for a teaching role. Didn't listen, and now look what happened."
Deciding not to entertain his old friend, Mr. Kirigiri then asserts, "A friendly reminder for you, Ms. Yukizome. Starting exactly next week, you'll be replacing Kizakura as the homeroom teacher of Class 77-B."
Chisa gratefully bows in turn. "Thank you, Mr. Kirigiri." As the former Ultimate turns to leave the room, Kizakura catches her attention with a,
"Hey."
The woman turns her head back towards him.
Kizakura tells her with a little bit of weariness in his tone, "Yukizome, if you're truly serious about taking over next week, I'm gonna have to give you a little reminder. A helpful tip from one teacher to another, if you will."
"Go on, I'm listening." She affirms as she retains her eye contact with him.
"Once you see the kind of things those kids get into," Kizakura raises an empty flask and shakes it to further emphasize his point. "You'll probably start wanting to have a drink or two. They're crazy even by Ultimate standards."
Judging by how the soon-to-be teacher responded to his piece of wisdom, he isn't sure whether Chisa took him seriously or not. Meh, not like it'll matter next week; he'll surely know by then.
"Thanks for the advice, Kizakura," Chisa says with a short laugh as she confidently raises a fist up. "But I know I've got this handled in a jiffy!"
And just like that, she's gone off of the office.
'Huh, that's a bold statement for someone who never taught a single batch of students before to say.' Koichi closes his eyes as he heard the former Ultimate leave the headmaster's office. He sighs out loud. 'Hopefully, Yukizome has whatever it takes to back that claim up.'
Handling troublesome teenagers are a completely different set of beasts compared to bigger, more experienced boxers, after all. He knows for certain that one of them is less complicated to handle with fewer packs of canned worms to boot.
A week later, Chisa thought it'd be a good idea to make her grand entrance by slamming the door open with enough force and flair, but not so much it'd make the door fall off its hinges. A big, cheery grin goes wide on her face as she announces, "Good morning, everyone!"
The newly-appointed teacher expected the great silence that came after. Her new students must be very confused right now; she can picture a couple of them wondering what the heck happened to Mr. Kizakura even with her eyes closed.
'Huh, that's weird.' Her new students are oddly quiet, maybe a little too quiet for her comfort, for quite some time now. Were they a little too shocked to say anything? How awkward; she knew she should've toned her introduction down quite a bit.
When she opens her eyes, she expected to see small groups or even a couple or handful of students around on their desks. The outlines of where the students should've been continuously blink once or twice in her mind.
"Where is everyone?!" She screams. If no one has heard of what pure indignation sounded like before, they'd surely do know if they heard her right then.
Kizakura did warn her a few times that most of his now-former students barely showed up to class, and only around a quarter of them stuck around because they felt bad for him. She expected to at least see those same students, only for them to be gone as well! As upsetting all of that sounds, that's only the beginning.
If there is truly one thing that gets on her nerves more, that same thing inside the classroom is what triggered Chisa even worse than her new students' total absence for the day. Oh no, there's something so bad it overtook that aspect. Simply put, the classroom is filthy in more ways than one!
The student desks? Dusty! The teacher's desk? Even dustier! The blackboard? Chokeful of chalk and dragged in dust! The wall and the floor? All of those messes above coupled with even more dust!
Most importantly, how did a cricket or even more of them managed to get inside the classroom? Were the students of this class so, so bad, they even started to neglect their own cleaning duties?!
'Unacceptable!' Chisa fumes on the inside so much, smoke might as well rise out of her ears and her forehead can be used to heat some tea while she's at it. 'Completely unacceptable!'
The former Ultimate rapidly shakes her fist towards the ceiling. "I'll get those rotten oranges out of their funk, even if I have to drag them out there myself!"
Somewhere within the school grounds, a handful of Ultimates can't help but feel something run down their spines at the exact same time. They all have one collective thought for that.
'Where did that come from?'
To start things off, Chisa had decided to start things off with at least four of the missing students. Once again, according to what Kizakura had mentioned once or twice in passing prior, only six of them bothered to show up to class. She conveniently left out two of those students, intending to save them for later if she can.
For now, her targets are the following but not necessarily in order: Natsumi Kuzuryu, Mikan Tsumiki, Mahiru Koizumi, and Hiyoko Saionji.
One half of them were easy to pick up. Tsumiki was such a dear to handle (even though she wouldn't stop squealing in fear and apologizes so much) and although Koizumi had been suspicious of her at first, she eventually came around and agreed to follow her back to the classroom. The other half, however...
Chisa will have to say it's a good thing that Kuzuryu separated herself from her bodyguard for today, otherwise, that'd make things harder. The yakuza may have barked a lot, but without Pekoyama around, she could only grumble as she resigned herself to following the odd group back.
As for Saionji, well, on the plus side, Kuzuryu took great satisfaction in hearing the nurse goblin's unholy screaming as wriggled around the teacher's surprisingly strong and steady grasp. That same nurse goblin had countless attempts to try and free herself by repeatedly smacking the back of Ms. Yukizome. The former boxer didn't react to those attempts and if anything, she didn't seem to mind at all.
That fact didn't please Saionji at all and only made the nurse double down her efforts even more.
The weird group isn't even close to going at least halfway back to their classroom when Saionji gave up, though it isn't out of willingness on her part.
"What the hell, is her back made of cement or something?" Saionji curses out loud, refusing to let her tears fall through. "Why did Hope's Peak let a monster like her in?!"
Koizumi sympathetically glances at her friend. Tsumiki might've felt a little bad seeing the nurse's petite knuckles turn red and swollen. Kuzuryu internally milks the sweet dish for all its worth.
Saionji didn't stop pouting around even after Chisa graciously let her go inside the classroom.
For now, Chisa only told them the basics. Yes, Kizakura will no longer be their homeroom teacher as of today. Yes, starting today, she's taking over his position and it'll stay that way until their graduation. No, it isn't negotiable.
Full introductions can wait later, once everyone else had been picked up too. Before turning to leave, Chisa wipes the desk's surface with an index finger and grew positively miffed at the thick layer of dust that coated it. "By the way, the classroom better be spick and span before I get back here, which should be around noon after lunch."
"After lunch?!" Kuzuryu balks, eyes wide. "That's insane. You can't make us do that!"
As much as Saionji hates to admit it, for the first time since they've met, she finds herself agreeing with the yakuza heiress, even if internally. She didn't dare to voice that out loud; she's not as dumb as that braindead blonde.
That immediately prove to be a wise decision when their new teacher turns around, facing down Kuzuryu with a smile.
"Oh my, oh my." Chisa's facial expression remains completely unchanged. While inching her face closer, she continues to wear the same friendly smile with the equally inviting closed eyes as she definitely, non-maliciously asks, "Will you kindly tell me why I can't do that, Kuzuryu?"
The yakuza heiress would've, should've made any sort of aggressive retorts by now. She tries to say a word, anything, but no matter how hard she tried, her mouth remains shut.
It didn't make things better when she feels the new teacher grabs onto one shoulder with enough force to tell her she's only warming up.
"Come on, you shouldn't feel so shy." Her tone still remains so sickeningly sweet. She opens one eye, as if to size her up. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet right now."
That's the first time Koizumi heard Kuzuryu squeal with a high-pitched "Eeeep!" That's also the first time Koizumi, or anyone in that room for that matter, sees the usually haughty yakuza heiress to completely break down and lose all color.
If what Ms. Yukizome said turned out to be true, and she'd be their teacher until they graduated, it won't be the last time either.
The yakuza metaphorically gave up the ghost, so to speak, around the same time Chisa confidently left them to do their new task. No one comforted Kuzuryu about that in any way.
As for the remaining students currently left to their own devices, the new teacher is on her way to pick and send them back to their classroom. It won't be easy, not with the school being so big; each and every single one of those students could be anywhere. But hey, that's totally fine! She's used to this.
The exact details all about rounding up the rest of Class 77-B will probably get old real quick, especially if done in rapid succession, so it's best to skim to the main points as to not bore people out with repetitive details.
At least around ten or so students were completely by themselves. The rest were in a small group of two. The latest wrangles, Sonia Nevermind and Gundham Tanaka, Ultimate Swordswoman, and Ultimate Team Manager, respectively, fell into the latter group. Chisa found them inside the gym, presumably training, no, scratch that, they were definitely training. The gym equipment might've been wrecked and the walls were lined up with all sorts of strange-looking symbols, but it was really cool and exciting to watch them go at it!
Chisa mentally checkes over the students she'd met and then promptly sent back. Once she mentally tallied over their names, she then says to herself, "Alright, two more rotten students left to go."
Which now leads her to one of the student's dorms. She politely but firmly knocks onto the wooden door, calling out, "Hellooo, is Mitarai in there? If you're not in there, just let me know."
A beat.
Chisa waits.
Another beat.
As expected, she hears a voice call out, "I'm not here!" She smiles as she fondly shook her head. Ryota Mitarai, the Ultimate Mangaka, is one of those classic recluses, or so she'd heard.
Back inside his room, Mitarai hastily puts away his endless supplies of papers and pens. He nervously glances back and forth between his room's door and windows. After thinking about it, he opens his dorm's window, preparing to jump out of there himself—
"Huh," The round boy stops himself mid-step, dumbfounded as he meets almost face-to-face with Chisa. "How did you get there so fast?"
She shrugs. "I was about to jump in since you didn't want to answer the door, but it looks like you beat me to it."
The mangaka takes a step back. "Oh, in that case..."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH"
Chisa keeps up with him. She never thought that a guy like Mitarai somehow managed to outrun someone like her even with a headstart. And now, they're both outside to who knows where. "Mitarai, please get back here!"
"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU PSYCHO" Mitarai screams.
Currently, he's roughly two meters away from her in distance. He's a good runner, she'll admit that. Too bad for him, it isn't good enough. It didn't take long for her to zero closer onto him.
While in doing so, she narrowly tries her best to avoid the two students who happened to be in the way. "Excuse me!" She didn't stop even for less than a second to check on them; she'll apologize later, she swears.
"Don't worry," Chisa calls out, closing in at least a foot behind the student she chased. "It's not like I'm carrying anything sharp!"
Mitarai turns his head back behind her to screech, "THAT'S NOT THE POINT AND YOU KNOW THAT"
In the end, no matter how fitting his running skills will be in a future Olympic event, a mangaka still isn't a match for a former boxer in terms of endurance.
Chisa unwittingly steps back into the view of the two bystanders she nearly crashed over, all with an exhausted but beaming smile on her as she drags the now tied-up and gagged Mitarai. It might've been a practical joke gift, but who knew that these items Juzo gave her a year ago will come in handy one day?
Wiping her forehead, she exclaims, "Whew, fourteen rotten oranges down, just one more rotten orange to go and I'll be—" And then her eyes goes over the duo, the same pair she and Mitarai passed by a moment ago. Now that she's no longer chasing after Mitarai, a big revelation comes over her as she closely examined the two. She ends up abruptly cutting herself off and pausing as if to recompose herself. She says while laughing awkwardly, "Oh, wow. That's awfully convenient!"
"Rotten...oranges?" The girl beside Hinata repeats in confusion.
Chisa ends up nodding without thinking first. "That's right! The students I've been assigned to are a whole bunch of them; no one was even present in class to say hi to me." She mumbles that last part; the memory, as recent as it might've been, has not left her. Shaking that off, she returns to her chipper self. "That being said, with enough rotten oranges, we can still make a big and nice youth jam, no matter how rotten they are!"
The boy snarks, "Okay, first of all, I don't think that's how jams work. And second of all, what do you mean by 'students you've been assigned to'?"
She bumps a hand at the back of her head. Of course, she nearly forgot to do the most important thing. "Oops, I almost forgot about that one. How silly of me." She clears her throat and places a fist on her chest. "My name is Chisa Yukizome, but you can call me Ms. Yukizome. And, as of today, I'm your new homeroom teacher!"
"..."
"..."
"...mmrrph..?"
The awkward tension that set in flattens Chisa's cheerful demeanor. "...Was it something I said?"
It didn't help when she sees the male student had a look of recognition on his face. "Wait a minute," He begins, directly looking into her face. "I've seen you on TV before."
Within her mind, Chisa repeatedly begs the student not to remind her. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No no no no no no no no no please don't say it please don't say it please don't say please don't pleasedon'tsayit I'm begging you—'
"You're the former Ultimate Boxer, Chisa 'The Feral Woman' Yukizome, right?"
Annnndddd he did anyway.
Moments of humiliation and embarrassment came flooding back to Chisa harder than a train. She's inches away from screaming into his face, "EEEEHHH! People still call me by that RIDICULOUS TITLE!?" Sure, it's not as bad as a few other titles she received, but still!
"It's not really a big deal."
"That actually sounds neat, I think."
"Yes, it is!" She desperately counters. "And NO, it's not! Please, no more talking about it!"
Rather mercifully, none of them decided to press the topic any further. Chisa sighs gratefully. "Now that I've introduced myself," She moves over to the male student. "You must be Hajime Hinata, right?"
"That's me." He confirmed.
Chisa momentarily laid her focus on the other one, taking notice of her different uniform. Instead of being a bright brown like the Ultimates' uniforms, this new student's leaned on a borderline black. It lets her know that this student, unlike Hinata, is from the reserve course. "And your friend here is..?"
In contrast with Hinata who replied almost immediately, it takes her a moment to do the same. When she did reply, she avoids looking Chisa in the eye. "Chiaki Nanami. I'm...I'm from the reserve course."
With that fact confirmed, she then says in turn, "It's nice to meet you too, Nanami." Chisa flashes the student with a friendly smile. She inwardly wilts when the student doesn't return it.
Refocusing onto Hinata, she then tells them both, "Anyways, I'd hate to cut your meeting short but I need to get Hinata back to class, okay?" She taps a finger at her right wrist a few times to mimic a wristwatch. "We can't keep everyone back in class waiting for too long, you know."
She sees the reserve course student, Nanami, look away from them both. "I guess this is goodbye, then."
"Even if it is," Hinata did his best to look towards her to convey his genuine words. "I don't think it has to stay that way if you don't want it to. I mean, I can go and see you here again, right?"
Chisa decides not to interfere between the two, letting them say goodbye to each other first. As soon as she hears them promise to see each other again tomorrow, the teacher went over to Hinata.
While holding the rope that kept Mitarai by her side, she raises her other arm to try and carry him over her shoulder, only for Hinata to hastily put that arm down with both hands. "Thanks, but I can walk."
"That's fine with me." is what she replies with while taking a hold of one his hands, gently pulling Hinata with her alongside the still-tied up Mitarai, who's also still being dragged on the floor.
While on their way back to class, Chisa thought back about earlier. 'That reserve course student looked so miserable. I can't imagine what their classes are putting them through.'
As much as she felt sorry for that kid, Chisa didn't have precious time to spare to dwell on that. It's not like she could do anything, as much as she wanted to do something.
She has her own class to worry about now, after all.
Once she led Hinata and Mitarai (now untied and thankfully wouldn't try to run away again anytime soon, not unless he wants to re-experience that) back inside, Chisa mentally did a headcount on everyone inside. Fifteen of them in total, and from what she'd seen so far, no one tried to leave while she was gone.
In addition to that, not a single speck of dust is stuck anywhere anymore. She pretends not to pay any attention to the death glare Kuzuryu is directing towards her.
Now that the classroom's all tidied up and everyone is back here again, surely everything will go swell for this class now. Chisa knows it.
Chisa steps right in front of her desk and begins her heartfelt speech. She can easily tell that no one's truly paying attention to her, that's what teenagers do at that age; even she was guilty of that at some point. It didn't stop her from pouring as much passion as she can into it, however.
She ends her heavily underappreciated speech with, "Now with all of that out of the way, why don't we all start over and re-introduce ourselves to make everyone more familiar with each other?"
The teacher has already prepared herself to hear unenthusiastic groans from her new students. That's okay, though.
"Hey, don't give me that!" She calls out to them. "Show me some more enthusiasm, everyone! Come on, where's your spirit of youth?"
A/N: *checks the date this fic was last updated* Wow, I can't believe it's been more than a year. I really should curb my procrastinating habit down.
That aside, I do apologize for being late in updating twice in a row now. Hopefully with a less ambiguous update schedule, this'll get better. Maybe.