Chisa slams a hand to the office's desk, along with a bunch of papers. After that, she looks at the headmaster dead in the eye and she tells him in the most serious, no-nonsense tone she can muster, "I would like to move the Ultimate's yearly exams to another date."
When totaling her, the headmaster himself, Kizakura, and the Steering Committee, there are seven of them who gathered around in the headmaster's office.
"M-Ms. Yukizome?" Mr. Kirigiri stutters. His eyes rapidly go over from the papers she presented on his desk and then onto her, almost like he's trying to comprehend whatever the hell is going on.
While he processes that, one of the Steering Committee members, the short and twiggy old man, to be exact, steps forward, goes up between them. That old man, Mr. Mizushima if she's remembering correctly, adjusts his glasses. He goes quiet for a second or so, staring intently at her, before uttering out, "What did you say?"
"I said," She reiterates, steeling her voice and turning her head around while directly addresses the old man, "I would like to move the Ultimates' yearly exams to another date."
The old man isn't the one who answers back this time.
Instead, it's the headmaster himself, now that he's done looking over the papers and overheard everything. He rests his chin on top of his hands and asks her, "But, is there a reason why you'd like for that to happen?"
Having prepared herself for this, Chisa earnestly replies, "Mr. Kirigiri, as you've probably heard before, there were two incidents at the reserve course," She can't help but wince as she goes over the next part, remembering what it was like for four particular kids. "My students are going through a…let's say a rather difficult time right now because of what happened."
"I see. I'll give all of my condolences to them." The headmaster bows his head as a sign of respect to their story.
Mr. Minami coughs a few times before loudly clearing his throat. He rudely inserts himself into their discussion and unhelpfully adds, "If we agreed to your…'request'," His eyes slant while he pronounces that word like it's a slur, "Then it wouldn't exactly be fair to the other Ultimates now, would it?"
"Mind telling why that wouldn't be fair for them?" It's almost tempting to roll her eyes at them, but she knew it'd be unprofessional of her, so she kept that in check.
Another member clicks his tongue. His answer, if it can even be called that, just dodges her question off entirely. "You shouldn't play favorites with your students. I thought that you of all people would know of something as simple as that." That member, Mr. Akiyama, also unhelpfully adds with a disdainful shake of his head, "Ah, but then again, I suppose I, one of the most important staff members of the school, shouldn't know better than a recently-graduated Ultimate."
She completely ignores the older man's biting remark, not caring if her blatant disrespect infuriated him even more. "Would you at least consider it? My students have already been through so much stress lately. I don't know if they'd be at their top shape for the exams."
"If your students call themselves 'Ultimates', then they should be able to perform the best of their talents despite any setbacks that might've occurred." Mr. Sasaki surmises, crossing his arms at the end of that.
Those inconsiderate words set something in her off. She was leaning over earlier, to be at a better level with the headmaster, but once she heard that, she stands herself straight up. She slowly turns around to face the four old men.
"A setback?" She repeats while gritting her teeth; with her current tone, it'd sound like she's on the verge of shouting even without actually raising her voice. All the while, an intense, burning feeling surges so high through her chest all the way to her neck. "Are you seriously calling my students' personal tragedy a 'setback'?! Why, I ought to—"One of her fists clench, almost like it's about to rise and slug one of the slimy bastards right on his thick noggin then and there.
"Yukizome, that's enough," Kizakura says, trying to placate her somehow while he places his arm over her, in case if she does try to knock a few teeth out.
Thankfully, she calms down enough to stay put with her hands clenched at either side. She forces herself to take deep breathes while counting down on the inside. She reminds herself to thank the scout later; things wouldn't have ended well for everyone if she went through with knocking those old men out.
As for the Steering Committee, even though the blows never came, they cautiously step back further than they were before and have gone completely silent, at least for now. Maybe they thought it over; it wouldn't be a good idea to mess with a former boxer, after all.
Mr. Kirigiri pinches the bridge of his nose. He closes his eyes and takes a long, exhausted sigh. He slowly shakes his head before opening a single eye. He looks over to everyone in the room, going to each member of the Steering Committee and finally, onto Chisa herself.
The headmaster takes another deep breath. Two of his fingers slowly rub over his forehead. "As much as I hate to admit it, the Steering Committee does have a point. We can't simply move the exams' date just like that. There are far too many things to consider."
As he goes over to explain said factors, the four men start humming and chuckling around their apparent victory. Chisa does her best to tune their mocking out of her hearing and instead, focuses on what Mr. Kirigiri is saying to her.
"For one, several people from the press have already made their appointments with us a month ago. Moving the dates would've been doable had it just been a handful of them, but the problem is, most of those people are big names in our country." He runs a hand over his hair, giving himself some time to breathe before adding, "Not to mention, they've already announced the scheduled dates a week ago and are obligated to follow through with it."
"Don't forget the sponsors who'd be joining in as well, oh dear Headmaster." Mr. Sasaki points out with a subtle, biting tone.
At the mention of that, Mr. Kirigiri sighs once more, palming over the side of his head. "Yes. There are also the sponsors we have to worry about, as Mr. Sasaki had pointed out." He narrows his eyes.
Before this, she thought she'd have a decent chance of convincing the headmaster, knowing him to be a reasonable man at least. But, now with all of those factors he mentioned, she isn't so sure anymore.
He notices her change in mood. His gaze immediately softens as he addresses, "I understand what you're trying to do, Ms. Yukizome, I truly do. If everything was up to me, I would gladly approve of your request to move the exams' date. But, the school is in a delicate situation at this point, so I'm afraid I can't do anything about it."
She forces a smile out. She tries not to make the disheartened tone in her voice too obvious. "It's okay. I understand. Thank you anyway for hearing me out." She bows her head to the headmaster.
From on her way out of the office, Chisa swears she saw one of those four men smiling smugly towards her. She musters up all her remaining self-control and makes herself look away from them, all while keeping a neutral expression on her face.
She might've been less than happy about the headmaster's final decision, especially when it was obviously slated in another party's favor, but she isn't going to let that show on her face. It's not worth it, giving those men the satisfaction of seeing her reaction.
Chisa walks towards her classroom. She knows to herself she's unusually late at this time; after her request got rejected yesterday afternoon, her usual cheery disposition has gone and deflated to a glumly one.
'No matter what I said, I still couldn't convince them.' A soft sigh leaves from her lips.
She slowly pushes the door open, and she sees eleven of her students have already gathered in their seats. Her eyes move over from each one; her heart sinks upon seeing the four empty desks. Even until now, Kuzuryu, Pekoyama, Koizumi, and Saionji have remained absent.
Trying to get herself back on work, she goes right behind her desk and starts calling for their names, marking their attendance whenever she hears them call back to her.
Once everyone's attendance has been settled, she goes over to go and discuss their first activities for today. Or, at least, she would've had, if someone hadn't raised their hand.
Although she hasn't said anything yet, that student proceeds with their question anyway. "Ms. Yukizome? Are you okay?" Komaeda is the first to speak up for everyone.
'Ah, I must've slipped up.' In an instant, she regains her composure, enough to convincingly herself through and gets herself back into the enthusiastic teacher they knew.
Thinking fast, she replies to Komaeda's question with, "Oh, was it that obvious? Sorry," She laughs, lightly bonking a hand on her head. "I just had to sort through a lot of papers yesterday, so I guess I must've looked really out of it. It's nothing much to worry about, though!"
It seems like everyone bought that shaky excuse she made up on the spot. Well, almost everyone, if she's reading the intense stare Hinata is giving her correctly. She wonders if he managed to see through her flimsy lie, but since he isn't saying anything, she decides not to worry about that for now.
As their class goes through the first half of the day, an uncomfortable thought from the back of her mind wouldn't let her rest easy. She knows to herself she failed them as their teacher, and here she is, acting as if nothing happened.
What did she do to deserve them?
The first half of the day passes by too quickly for him. He noticed something is going on with Ms. Yukizome in the morning, but because he thought it'd be too soon to ask, he didn't press some more about it. Maybe he'll ask her later after classes are over.
His fingers absentmindedly fidget over the blue handheld console. His eyes are kind of vacant; to anyone who might've seen him, they'd probably think it's because he's too invested in the game. But, the truth is, he isn't sure if he's even paying attention to the screen anymore.
His mind wanders back; he went out to visit their meeting spot an hour ago, but he hasn't seen Chiaki around there. Even when he waited throughout the whole lunch period, she never turned up. He thinks back on the last thing they talked about, wondering if that had something to do with this.
Chiaki told him she wouldn't be gone for too long, but, what does she exactly mean by that? Is she dropping out of the reserve course? Maybe it's something simple and he's thinking too hard about this. He isn't so sure anymore.
He wishes he knew something about it.
A low beeping tone hits his ears, signaling the death of his in-game character. He lets out a low, heavily drawn-out sigh as he shuts the console off. He solemnly glances at it once more before putting it away inside the space of his desk.
Someone approaches him from the side of his seat. Hajime turns his head to the side to look at who it is; he feels a bit relieved when it turns out it's just Kazuichi.
Kazuichi didn't show off his weirdly sharp, toothy grin this time, which is a bit unnerving to see. "Hey, Hajime, you okay? Is there something wrong?" He asks, slightly bending his torso over to meet him at eye-level by his seat. One of his rats pokes its head out of his breast pocket; judging by the size, it's most likely Rom.
'There are so many things that are going wrong this month,' is what he'd probably reply if he was in the mood to be too honest. Because he isn't in any mood this time around, instead he sighs, leaning his cheek against his palm. "I guess so."
Unusually for a guy like him, Kazuichi doesn't say anything to that. The other boy thoughtfully looks at him, straightening himself up, and then he gently reaches a hand out. Without saying even a word to him, he puts his hand over Hajime's back and starts to gently pat him in a consoling way.
It's unexpected, but it isn't unwelcome either. This goes on for a moment or so; it's just him and…well, he supposes he can definitely consider Kazuichi as a friend at this point.
He lets a thin, slight smile go over his face. "Thanks, Kaz. I guess I really needed that."
The other boy's trademark toothy grin returns. "Man, I thought you already knew you don't have to thank me like that. I mean, I can't just let you feel down like that. You're pretty much my soul brother right now."
'That's the first time I've heard of something like that, but I'll take it,' He muses to himself, slightly shaking his head in fondness. "It wouldn't feel right if I didn't."
"Hey, mind if I talk about something important?" He becomes awkwardly quiet for a bit, backtracking his words afterward with, "Uh, but before I say anything, I don't know if you're going to be okay with it, since no one else in class really wants to talk about it."
Hajime has a feeling he knows exactly what his friend is talking about. He nods. "Go on. I'll hear it out."
Kazuichi takes his desk's seat, and after placing it right next to him, he begins with an uneasy voice, "So, we've got less than two weeks to prep for our exams."
"You're getting worried about how your performance will do?" He asks.
He shakes his head. "Nah, it's nothing like that. I'm not really worried about myself, or for Sonia and Gundham. I know they've got this easy. It's just that, you know, I don't know if I can say the same thing for everyone."
Certain classmates pop in Hajime's mind once Kazuichi mentions that.
He leans back and crosses his legs. "Sure, we didn't see each other for a couple of months until Ms. Yukizome got here, and even now, not everyone's calling each other by first names yet, but, I don't know if I can handle seeing anyone from our class leave after the exams."
'I didn't know much about my classmates back then. Even until now, I'm not sure if I know them on a deeper level. But, just like what Kaz said, the class wouldn't feel the same anymore when they're gone.'
He straightens himself up. A determined look passes over his face. "Now that you mentioned it, I think I know what I should do for everyone."
Kazuichi blinks. "Wait, really? What are you going to do, Hajime?"
Hajime explains the gist of his plan to him, and by the end of it, the other boy's grin grows wider than before.
"That sounds like it'd work!" He enthusiastically pumps his fist and then places it over his chest. "Alright, you can count me in with that too!"
And so, Hajime spent the rest of the week assisting his classmates in honing their talents in whenever he can. Kazuichi did his part as best as he can too, and by that, it meant watching over Sonia and Tanaka, plus a few other classmates to lessen some of the counselor's workload.
The animal breeder was too happy to help if he's being honest.
Surprisingly, even the stone-faced Pekoyama quietly accepted his help, though there's some hesitance on her part. It's not hard to see why. As for Kuzuryu herself, she didn't show up at all.
In Saionji's case…well, all Hajime can say is, he salutes the gigantic balls of steel his soul brother has; if he was in his place, he's sure he wouldn't have lasted even a few hours at the nurse's 'care'. He quietly swears to himself he'll make it up for Kazuichi's great sacrifice some time after the exams are over.
They've still got a week more to prepare, and so far, aside from Kuzuryu, everyone in his class has been accounted for.
Well, almost everyone. There's one other classmate he hasn't seen in a while. Koizumi still hadn't gone out of her room during these times, and even if she did, no one had a chance to see her. Not even Ms. Yukizome was able to check up on her.
He wishes he can do something for her. It didn't feel right to leave her out like this.
But right now, he's wandering around the empty gym while fetching something for Tanaka; from what little he can decipher when it comes to the team manager's…very expressive and imaginative way of talking, he needs a bunch of extra training swords because the last ones they used broke off. He'd wonder why, but he had a feeling he already knew the answer to that.
He isn't able to find any in the supplies' closet, or anywhere else in the gym, for that matter. Figuring he'll have to tell them the unfortunate news, he heads out of there.
He's on his way back to where everyone else is practicing for the exams, only for him to abruptly stop.
From the corner of his eye, he sees a familiar face sitting by a corner outside the building. He knows he should head back soon, but then, he's sure if he did that, she'd be gone by the time he goes back here.
And so, he takes the chance and slowly approaches. "Koizumi." He calls out to her once he closes a meter next to her.
The artist stays still, refusing to turn her head to look at him. If anything, she turns her body further away from his view. Even so, she didn't get up and run, even though she can easily do that instead. "What do you want now, Hinata?"
"I haven't seen you around until now, so, I guess I couldn't help but check on you." He replies as earnestly as he can. He then asks her, "Is it fine if I take a seat?"
She doesn't answer, but just to be safe, he keeps himself standing up. He doesn't need to push it any more than he has to.
An awkward silence passes by them. He sees he's getting nowhere with her, and so, decides to ask things differently. "Do you want to talk about it?"
She scoffs. "What else do I have to talk about? I already know our exams are getting closer." She sighs, wrapping her arms closer to her knees. "What's the point?"
He opens his mouth, trying to say something to help her feel better, even if a little. "Koizumi, it's okay to feel—" His mind stops. What is he going to say? Using the word 'upset' would make it a big understatement; it'd be like he's underestimating the heavy grief she's feeling. He isn't able to finish what he's about to say, as he's quickly cut off.
"You don't know what it's like." She quietly snaps back. Unlike the times where she often snapped back at the guys in class, including him, her tone isn't as strong as it usually is. It deeply unsettles him.
He exhales, admitting both to her and himself, "You're right about that. I can't pretend to know what it's like." It's difficult for someone like to imagine that. His classmate didn't just lose someone; she lost a close friend whom she knew even before attending Hope's Peak Academy, perhaps even from childhood, to one of the most tragic ways to die.
A part of him thinks that by barging in like this, maybe he isn't really helping her at all, maybe he's only making things worse for her.
"I'm sorry for bringing it up." He doesn't hear her reply, and so, he takes it as a sign to start walking in the other direction.
"Wait," She calls out to him.
The counselor stops himself from walking any further after hearing that. He turns back and is met with the sight of his classmate's pained face looking back at him.
Koizumi appears to hesitate to say something after that. She swallows, averting her eyes away from him. She mumbles loud enough for him to hear, "Don't go yet."
He takes a seat right next to her. He didn't want to overstep any boundaries, so he's keeping half a meter of space between them. When he didn't hear her say anything to that, he figures it should be alright.
For the next couple of minutes, it's just the two of them sitting there, not saying even a word to each other.
At least, not until Koizumi mutters out, "Hinata, I know I've been so unfair to you since the start of this school year. Even after everything I've said, you're still going out of your way for someone like me. I'm not sure if a simple 'thank you' is enough to make up for all of that."
"You don't have to worry about it." He reassures her, adjusting his seat a bit. "You're still my classmate. It wouldn't feel right to leave you behind just like that."
Koizumi doesn't say anything back to what he said.
After that, Hajime feels himself getting lost in thought again. Sometimes, it feels like people overestimate his capabilities. He doesn't magically make people feel better about themselves just by listening to everything they say; he knows he's not a miracle maker like some believe him to be, Ultimate Counselor or not.
In any case, it's still up to Koizumi on what she'd do next.
Little do the two know, their teacher's been watching them talk since a few moments ago.
It might sound questionable to an outsider, but Chisa swears it was by complete accident and she wasn't stalking her students on purpose, or anything else like that really, even though she did ended up seeing the conversation between Hinata and Koizumi anyway.
All of it.
Yeah, totally by accident, really.
In any case, as she saw them talk things out, she felt something warm swell up in her chest. She also felt something wet at the corner of her eyes; she wipes it away with the back of her hand. The warm feeling in her grew some more.
She thought she couldn't be any prouder of them, but here she is now. Even though they shouldn't be obligated to do it, especially not if their wounds haven't been fully healed just yet, she saw how everyone is doing their best in preparing for the yearly exams.
Both sides of her lips curl up with little to no resistance from her. Her students are a lot stronger than she gave them credit for.
It's too early for her to think about it, but, a part of her is hoping that maybe things will work out for them after all.
For no particular reason at all, she thought it'd be a splendid idea to come and visit an old friend of hers; which of course, leads her to walking by the main campus's gates.
"Good evening, Juzo!" She calls out to him with a smile, enthusiastically waving her arm at him.
Juzo yells (more like screams, judging by the tone of voice he used), "Hey!" as he turns his attention towards her, one hand curled into a fist in preparation. His eyes go wide after a moment, managing to stop his half-raised arm from laying even a finger on her.
He lowers his arm, looking over her a few more times. He then awkwardly palms at the back of his head while looking away from her. "Oh, it's just you, Chisa." He mumbles, now knowing what he'd almost done to her.
Not that she was worried in the first place. This isn't the first time something like this happened anyway, and besides, they've sparred plenty of times before, back when they were just students at this same school. Ah, how time flies by so fast.
He tilts his head around like he's scanning the area around in case if there were any passersby. She does the same as well, just in case.
Once they both confirmed there's no one around, he leans in a bit to whisper, "Maybe we should take this to somewhere else. My shift should be done in a couple more minutes anyway."
She knowingly winks and grins at him. "Alright. I get you."
Chisa stands by the edge of the gates while she waits for his shift to be over, and just as Juzo told her, he walks out of the gates after some time passes by.
They move to one of the public benches around here, outside of the main campus's vicinity. The two adults take a seat. She takes it as her cue, looking towards his direction and starting their impromptu conversation with a relaxed, "So, how were you doing? Found anything interesting yet?"
"If I'll be honest with you, this is a lot harder than I thought." He grunts, hunching forward in his seat. "I wasn't able to find or report anything important to Kyosuke."
"Let me guess, you're stuck at the gates all day long, aren't you?" She teasingly says to him.
His face flushes. An annoyed "Tch," comes out of him and he follows it back with, "Not exactly all day long, just from six AM to six PM with a lunch break."
"So you're admitting you were actually stuck at the gates all day long."
He scowls, but it's easy to tell it wasn't one of his more serious ones, since this is a light-hearted conversation. "Shut it, like you're one to talk. At least I'm not the one who's stuck in a room with a bunch of irritating kids all day long."
Oh, so now he's using her own words against her? Chisa covers her mouth with a mock gasp, before she playfully fires back with, "Excuse you, I actually love and care for those irritating kids you mentioned. Maybe you'd enjoy it too once you give it a try."
The man scoffs. "As if I'd want to spend most of my time with kids for weeks on end."
"Well, let's just agree to disagree, then. But of course," She chuckles. "If you want to change your mind anytime, just let me know."
With that topic ended, Juzo starts a new one. His eyes stare onto the pavement as he asks her, "So, how about you? You found anything about Hope's Peak?"
"Aside from the recent cover-ups that you might've heard of," She shakes her head. "No, there's nothing too out of the ordinary that I've seen so far either."
Then again, there's something about the Steering Committee that rubs her the wrong way, but she's not going to mention that to him. It's probably her bias against them talking anyway, and a certain incident isn't helping that at all.
And then, out of nowhere, she sends a light punch to the man's shoulder. It didn't hurt him in the slightest; it felt more like a light tap if anything, which is why he barely reacted all that much to that.
Still, that didn't stop him from rubbing that spot and indignantly asking her, "What was that for?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just that I remembered a little something after that. You know, you didn't have to be so harsh with that student back then."
Juzo regards her with a genuinely puzzled look. "Huh? What student are you talking about—oh," His eyes squint in realization by the end of that. He grunts, palming over the side of his head as he replies, "If I didn't, that brat would've stuck her nose around in some business she shouldn't be a part of."
"You could've handled it a lot better, you know." She points out, scolding him somewhat even though she retains her cheery smile. Even better, the teacher is wagging her index finger right in front of his eyes.
"What would you have done in my place, then?"
"Hmm," She hums, thinking about the potential scenario. It's a bit hard for her to imagine, since in that case, she would've never seen her beloved students, but, she guesses it won't hurt to think of the potential 'what-if'.
Her former classmate patiently waits for her answer.
She closes her eyes in concentration and crosses her arms. "I guess I'd probably use force as the last resort if they still wouldn't budge," She opens a single eye to stare at him. "In any case, I wouldn't immediately jump to beating a stubborn teenager around if I can help it."
"That sounds like something you'd do." He remarks while a low chuckle escapes from him. Once that rare moment ended, he turns to her and asks, "Speaking of Kyosuke, how's he doing with that overseas project of his?"
Now it's Chisa's turn to look rather confused. "Huh? He didn't let you know about that?"
Juzo shrugs. "He didn't."
She thinks back to what was said between them. "Well, aside from the project's proposal and other stuff he told me on my first day, nothing much either," She shrugs. "I think I can understand why. He wouldn't want too much to get leaked into the public at this time."
"It sounds like he hasn't changed that much either." At the end of that, a small smile passes over his lips.
Seeing a tough guy like him smile is also a rare moment to see. Because of that, she can't help but tease him some more by saying, "Oh, and just so you know, I still won't give Kyosuke up so easily to you."
He snorts. "What brought that up?"
"When you mentioned him by name, of course." She shoots back at him with a smile.
They talk some more, mostly about lighter topics and such. From what Chisa heard, a bunch of other reserve course students had already tried breaking in a few times; she also heard her old friend grumble about hearing a bunch of rumors that came after that, one of which was that allegedly, a student was punched so hard, they had to eat from a straw for a year (wasn't it supposed to be 'drink from a straw'? she mentally asks). He clarifies to her that the student only received a bruised cheek at worst.
Before either of them knew it, the area around them slowly darkens.
The teacher looks at the sky. "Oh, would you look at the time." Chisa comments. She leans back against the bench, stretching her arms and humming in satisfaction all the while. "We haven't seen each other since graduation, so it's been great talking to you again."
"Guess I could say the same."
"Well, whenever our schedules are free, we could start hanging out some more again. Maybe even spar once in a while."
"Hmm, just like old times." Juzo muses.
"Yeah, just like old times." Chisa agrees. She gets up from her seat and glances over her friend one more time. "Well then, I'll see you around, Juzo!" She waves an arm at him.
With their farewells done, she starts walking away from this area.
A/N: Yay for some callbacks!
Here's a fun little thing I wanna share: originally (and like what happened in the original version), Chisa was going to admit she tried to have their exams moved, starts beating herself for failing to do that, and then everyone in class would start reassuring her and say something on the lines of she did what she could/she didn't fail anyone. I wasn't able to get their dialogues to work, so I moved it out this time.
EDIT: Retconned a few stuff here. I didn't like how I glossed over Natsumi in one line here, so I took that out and replaced it.