Chapter 2

Three days had passed since Ruru received a call from a young Burmese boy.

"Are you sure this is the correct town of Rangakan?" Fuuko asked. She was standing on the ground inside a desolate town along with Ruru, Morikoji, Toufukoji and the rest of the school gang who voluntarily came to Myanmar in spite of Ruru's warnings that they would encounter danger. 'I can see why those kids want to come to rescue Amawa but I can't believe Morikoji and Toufukoji would also volunteer. I didn't think those perverts would risk their lives for him.' Ruru thought.

"I still can't believe these human beings are living in such a place like this. It's hardly fit for pigs to live," Aoki interrupted, staring in disgust at these flimsy, dirty, terrible-looking townhouses. "Yeah, even a garbage dump looks better than these houses," Shyoichi agreed with equal astonishment.

Ignoring the boys' comments, Ruru craned her head and looked up at the brown-haired girl. "Of course, Fuuko-chan, even though these Burmese maps are unreliable, do you not think that I would count on my custom-made cell phone signal tracker?"

"What if that boy who contacted you might have taken it out of town?" Miko protested.

"No, Miko-chan, that is not a factor. This device was designed to track a cell phone's last known signal but not the cell phone itself. My tracker merely picked the location of that cell phone's last signal."

Fuuko leaned forward with her eyes wide, understanding what the landlady was implying. "You mean we still haven't found out where the boy was living but rather the location where the signal was sent to you?"

The landlady nodded. Fuuko cried in despair. "It took us three days to look for this town. Three days! Hibiki-sensei is going to be executed today!"

"Hold on, the sun hasn't even set yet today, which means Hibiki may still be alive." Ruru assured the younger girl.

"Why did we bother to rely on old vehicles, bumpy roads and unreliable road maps? We could have followed the cell phone signal to the source instead of these maps."

"The cell phone signal tracker needed a map to point us to the location but any Burmese road map was not downloaded into its data so it only uses the Japan's map of Myanmar instead which does not include obscure towns or roads," the old woman pointed.

Putting a hand on his forehead, Morikoji groaned, "What are we gonna do?"

"Simple. I'll call the boy again, assuming he still has the cell phone." Ruru pulled her cell phone from her pocket and punched buttons. A moment later, a ringing sound was heard and a boy's voice followed.

"Who is it?" the boy's face appeared on the cell phone's screen. "Oh, it's you, Miss granny."

"Where are you now?" Ruru inquired. The boy told her that he was in his home with his family and asked where she is now. Smiling and using her translator, the old midget said, "No, it's not necessary. We'll come to your house right now."

"Did you say 'we', Miss?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, I brought company."

"But you don't know where my house is," he pointed.

"Now we do, thanks to my cell phone signal tracker," she countered.

"Your what?" The boy blinked, not understanding what that word meant even though it sounded Burmese to him.

"Never mind, boy," she sighed. "What's your name?"

"Ang Su. My name is Ang Su."

"Good. Please stay there at your home. We'll come there." Then she deactivated the cell phone. Then she checked her tracker again and announced "That signal came from the direction of north.

"Then let's go there," said Fujio. Nodding in agreement, the gang headed for the source of the signal together.

Several minutes later, the group stood in front of this small flimsy two-story bamboo-made house with a roof made just of straw. Ruru figured there were at least two rooms on the second level and another two rooms on the first level. "Is this the house where the boy lives?" Seiko asked. Ruru nodded at the dark-haired girl.

"Ok, so who's going to knock first ?" Miko sighed. Ruru stepped forward and knocked on the door. A few seconds later, as the door opened by itself, a skinny woman in mid-30's appeared in front of the gang.

Looking from the right to the left then to bottom, the woman was startled to see that there were one elderly dwarfish woman, two men and several teenagers, dressed in casual, clean untorn, hygienic clothes unlike those usual ragged, dirty clothes which the Burmese villagers including herself were wearing. She spoke in Burmese. "Um, who are you?"

Ruru was about to respond but was interrupted by the boy's voice coming from behind the woman. "Hey, mama. I know that old woman. I've seen her face on this strange cell phone."

"Your universal translator really works. We can understand every word in their native language," Morikoji commented.

"You're amazing as ever, Ruru-san," exclaimed. "We can hear them speaking in Japanese," added Fuuko, sounding astounded.

The woman was surprised to hear those Burmese words from those strangers. "I thought you were foreigners, judging by your fancy clothes." Unbeknownst to the woman, her statement belied the fact that the strangers were only wearing modest clothing.

"Our clothes are hardly fancy, ma'am," Akira corrected. "At least not by our country's standards," Fujio added with a frown, staring at the woman's ragged, soiled yellow dress.

"By the way, who are those people, Ang? What do they want from us?" the woman asked her son.

"Well, I don't know the rest of those guys but I do know this old woman. She's a friend of the stranger who saved me and she is probably here to save him," he said.

"That's right, Ang," Ruru confirmed. "So where is the Anhwar prison where our friend was held at?"

"It's about a kilometer from here. In the north direction, ma'am."

"Thanks, Ang." Ruru said. "Has our friend Amawa been executed?"

Ang shook his head. "No, he will be executed at the sunset," he replied.

"That means we have two hours left before his undeserving execution," the elderly landlady said.

"And then we still can save Hibiki-sensei when we have the chance," Fuuko exclaimed with hope in her voice.

"Thanks for the info, Ang. We'd better go off." Ruru excused herself and her younger companions. They started to walk in the direction of north.

"So what's the plan, Landlady-san?" Toufukoji inquired while walking with the others.

"Plan?" Seiko was puzzled as she continued her walking.

"What he means is we need a plan," Aoki explained, fully understanding the nature of the older man's question. "We junior high students can't just barge into a prison, fight armed soldiers and free our teacher without getting slaughtered. So we must have a plan."

"Yes but that is why I still question whether it is a good idea or not to go overseas to rescue Hibiki-sensei from bad soldiers without even consulting our parents," Seiko said.

"Are you kidding, Seiko-chan? If we told our parents, they would never let us, even if they understood our wishes," Shyoichi argued. "What parent would not be concerned about letting their children face an unknown danger?" Fuuko reminded him.

"Landlady-san, have you thought of a plan," Morikoji repeated Toufukoji's plan.

"Sure I do, but I need your full cooperation," she answered. "All of you."

Fuuko declared, "I'll cooperate with you because I have faith in your plan, whatever it is."

"I'm with her, Ruru-san," Akira said, "But first, you have to tell us what your plan is and I'll consider agreeing to your plan."

"I'll also agree to it when I think that is a good plan in your opinion," Fujio added.

"Then you'll all agree as soon as I tell you." The elderly midget smiled.

In Anhwar prison, nearly two hours later.

Hibiki Amawa was sitting on the floor of his damp, unsanitary cell which was small enough to be a telephone booth for three days. He still hadn't shaved his recently grown beard or eaten anything since he was thrown into prison. He still awaited his fate although he had hopes that the boy contacted Ruru.

The Japanese man heard the cell door swing. As he looked up, he saw two Burmese prison guards stand in front of him. "It's time for your execution," the guard said in Burmese, which was a language Hibiki had yet to understand so he still had no idea what he was saying. He wished there was a Burmese prison guard who could speak English.

Seeing Hibiki's confusion, the guard made a gesture by waving his hand to indicate that he was telling him to stand up. Hibiki understood the gesture and stood up. Then the other guard handcuffed him and led him out of the cell on the way outside.

While Hibiki was walking outside, he wondered what these guys had planned to do with him until he saw the guillotine surrounded by at least thirty soldiers including the officer who he offended. He knew that his suspicions from three days ago were right. He had suspected that he was going to die.

On his way to the guillotine, Hibiki noticed that the officer was smirking, obviously taking pleasure in witnessing his death.

Calmly, he went up the stairs to the guillotine but anxiously prayed that Ruru would come to rescue him, assuming the boy did contact her. He still even didn't give up hope when the guards made him kneel and stuck his head through the gap between the guillotine's wooden boards.

He heard the executioner shout something in Burmese but he didn't need to be fluent in Burmese to know what his words meant. He was sure the executioner was calling for his death. He quietly closed his eyes, awaiting his death.

Suddenly, he heard an explosion coming from the left of his side. More explosions followed from every direction, causing the soldiers to scatter in panic

He opened his eyes again and saw a glider with a familiar figure on its steel bar hovering in the sky straight at Hibiki's guillotine. As he realized that was Ruru's doing, he felt a surge of relief through his body. Ruru pointed her grenade launcher at the blade above Hibiki's head and fired. The shot knocked the blade off the guillotine yards away.

He switched his attention from the sky to the surroundings on the ground again. He saw that the smoke from the explosions surrounded many of the panic-stricken soldiers and obviously obscured their view. However, as Hibiki observed closer, the smoke did more than that. The smoke is also tear gas and has rendered most of them unconscious.

He saw some more familiar figures coming from the smoke and shooting the soldiers with stun guns. At first he thought faces of Fuuko, Fujio, Akira and other kids, Morikoji and Toufukoji were his imagination but in horror, he realized he wasn't imagining things.

"Oh, Kami-sama. What was Baa-chan thinking, dragging kids--my own students into this dangerous operation?" he wondered, being flabbergasted. Baa-chan was Hibiki's nickname for the landlady Ruru.

Ruru's glider finally settled on the ground. Then the old midget disengaged herself and went to the guillotine platform. Hibiki got up as the landlady unlocked the wooden boards.

"I appreciate the rescue, Baa-chan and I understand you can involve Morikoji and Toufukoji. After all they are men, but why did you drag those kids into here?"

"Do you really think just two men and I can attack a heavily guarded prison and take out a hundred armed guards at once, even with my exotic weapons?"

"Well, I suppose not," Hibiki said, rubbing his hands. All of a sudden, the youthful teacher remembered Fuuko was among his rescuers. He scanned the surroundings again and spotted Fuuko nervously holding her stun rifle. He observed that Fuuko appeared very nervous with that rifle. But he could hardly be surprised with it. He always thought

She was gentle and hardly aggressive even when she pushed him away when she noticed him wear a bra a year ago.

"Excuse me, Amawa but I got to help kids subdue the guards," Ruru said, sprinting away from the guillotine platform.

He looked back at Fuuko again. But he noticed a conscious soldier a few meters from him pointing his pistol at her. Propelled by his concern for her safety, he instinctively jumped from the platform and ran towards the soldier's back, shouting Fuuko's surname. She heard her teacher's scream. Unfortunately so did the soldier, who whirled around and fired a couple of bullets into Hibiki's chest. The long-haired teacher collapsed on the spot.

"HIBIKI-SENSEI!" Fuuko screamed, rashly shot stun pellets into the soldier's back and head, rendering him conscious.

The last thing the wounded teacher saw was Fuuko running towards him before the darkness swept over his eyes.

Later, as he opened his eyes and awoke again, he saw Fuuko's worried but gentle face staring at him. "Thank Kami-sami you're awake and well," the girl cried, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Shaking the doziness, he scanned the surroundings again and saw Ruru, Mori, Toufu and the rest of the gang huddled around him. He remembered he was shot. Then he looked at his chest, which was bandaged.

Before he could ask, Ruru said, "I personally removed the bullets through surgery and Fuuko-chan bandaged your wound."

"I see, Baa-chan," he said. "Are we still at the prison?"

"Yeah. We've taken out all of the guards. They were really such a pathetic army." Ruru said with her eyes closed.

"Are you all right, sensei?" Fuuko asked.

"I'm fine."

"Then please come with us back to Japan," she sobbed, her tears flowing down her cheeks. "I want you there at our school again. No, I need you there. I can't bear knowing you wandering in some dangerous country ran by a tyrannical government and get killed there."

"Kuzuha-chan," Hibiki uttered, staring at her tear-flown face.

"Please come back with me." Fuuko begged. "You promised you'd be back to our school again, didn't you? I've waited for a year and you almost died in a foreign country."

"Of course, I will keep my promise with you all and come back," Hibiki asserted. He turned to Ruru again. "Baa-chan, did the boy contact you?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Thank goodness he did it," he sighed. Then he asked, "We can at least repay the favor by

Taking the boy and his family to Japan or to a better country. He doesn't deserve to stay in this terrible land. He deserves a reward, after all. "

"I'd have no trouble convincing the immigration authorities to accept the boy and his family. It'd take some time to teach them Japanese but I think we can manage that."

"Great. Then let's go." Hibiki said as Fuuko helped him stand on his feet. He rested on her shoulder and started to walk. Everyone started to head for home.

Back in Tokyo.

He still had to help the Burmese boy and his family with Ruru's assistance. Mori and Toufu returned ahead to the Inn. Hibiki managed to persuade Fuuko and other kids to go ahead back to the Seitow academy and wait for his return.

After Hibiki and Ruru made sure the family adjusted to living in Japan , she went ahead in order to check on the guys' behavior. Hibiki decided to return to his parents' house, do some small talk with them and collect his belongings again.

Then he paid a train ticket and climbed into the train which was headed for the region where Seitow Sannomiya Academy was located at.

At 8 pm, Hibiki standing on the street gazed at the private school building after he had arrived in a taxicab from the train station. He came straight here from his four-hour journey.

While strolling towards the Baa's Inn, he also thought about other students such as Fujio Himejima, Miko Umeda, Seiko, Akira Fukae, Aoki Kyosuke and Shyoichi Iwaya. He remembered about the principal and vice-principal Kyoto, too with a reasonably understandable dread.

Finally arriving at the inn, he knocked on the door. He waited for four minutes until the door opened. Then he saw Ruru who didn't seem surprised to see him here as if she had been expecting him.

"Hello, Hibiki Amawa." the old midget woman said dryly. Hibiki smiled, closed his eyes for a moment and gave a hearty chuckle. "Hello, Baa-chan. It is good to see you." Ruru shook her head but before she turned around "Dispense with the pleasantries and come in." she bluntly responded.

He entered inside the inn only to be greeted by two overjoyed men. Morikoji draped an arm around Hibiki's shoulder and tussled his hair. "Long time no see, Hibiki." Toufukoji went to Hibiki's other side and greeted warmly "Welcome back, Hibiki."

"So where is my dog, Kurage?" Hibiki asked.

"Oh, he was now food a year ago. He was kind of yummy," she licked her lips.

"Y-you didn't," he gasped outrageously. Suddenly he heard a familiar dog bark behind him. As he turned around, his dog ran towards him. He embraced Kurage joyously.

"Of course not, Amawa. I figured Kurage might still be worth more alive than dead," she said.

"By the way, Are you really going to go back to teaching at school?" Mori asked Hibiki.

"Actually, I'd have to deal with both the principal and vice-principal to get my job back."

"Don't worry about it. In fact, talked with the illustrious principal." Ruru said. She has already agreed to it. She is expecting you to resume your teaching duties."

"She did?"

"Yes. The director, students, parents and the faculty have also voted to welcome you back. The only one who still objected to it is the bitchy vice-principal." the old midget stated.

"I see." Hibiki was not surprised by the vice-principal's objections but he wondered what had changed the equally man-hating principal's mind.

"By the way, there is someone waiting for you in your room," Ruru said as she excused herself and left. The two perverted guys disappeared into their rooms, as well. Hibiki was startled by Ruru's statement but he had a feeling who his visitor was.

"Excuse me, Kurage. Sorry, boy but I've got to see someone." The dog, seeming to understand the meaning of Hibiki's words, scooted away.

At first he hurried on the way to his room, but as he stopped, he hesitated to touch the doorknob for a few seconds. He gulped and then turned the knob, opening the door.

He saw Fuuko dressed in her school uniform and sitting on the floor. His room was still lit.

"It's good to see you again, Hibiki-sensei," the brown-haired girl said.

"You, too, Kuzuha-chan," Hibiki nodded wryly.

"Please call me Fuuko from now on, will you? You don't have to be so formal with those surnames," she said, standing up.

"Er, sure, Fuuko-chan." Hibiki stroked his hair. Then the 23-year old man and the younger girl stopped talking for a minute. Finally, both of them started to say, "um."

They were startled by each other's exact expression, but Fuuko said "you go first,"

"No, you go first," Hibiki shook his head, his eyes half-closed.

"Okay," she agreed. "Hey, sensei, do you know I turned 15 two months ago?"

"I figured you'd be 15 because it has been a whole year since I left the school when you were still 14," he chuckled. Then he stopped speaking and scrutinized the young and physically mature 15 year old body that belonged to his student. Back in Burma and at airport, he was too preoccupied to even notice how Fuuko's body had grown up in one year. But now he had the opportunity to study her hourglass figure standing right in front of him.

Hibiki noticed she had grown up about two inches taller and had developed curves. But he also noticed the size of her developing bosom. They weren't big when he laid his eyes on her a year ago.

'Oh, Kami-sama, She has developed into a beautiful woman,' he thought.

"Do you think I've grown up?" she asked, noticing his stare and guessing his thoughts.

"Yes, You've grown up quite a bit," Hibiki said sheepishly. 'But you still have to grow up more,' he silently added.

"So, Hibiki-sensei, what are we going to do now," she asked, wondering whether Hibiki wanted to kiss her and get laid with her or not. To her surprise, he said, "Let's go out for a walk. Maybe fresh air and a view of the landscape will be nice,"

"Sure, sensei." the short brown-haired girl smiled.

Outside the inn, the teacher and student walked together until they stopped at a road near their school.

"Say, Fuuko-chan," Hibiki began.

"Yes?" Fuuko turned to the right and looked up at him quizzically.

"Do you remember the times we spent together as teacher and student?" he queried.

"Of course, they were happy times. I sure had a lot of fun. That was all the more reason I wanted to see you again," she said firmly. Hibiki swore he saw her eyes shine when she spoke.

"I see. I'd be happy to be your teacher again," he said, closing his eyes and smiling at her.

"Umm…I've been wanting to tell you something since you left school last year," Fuuko said. Then she hesitated, awaiting Hibiki's response. But he said nothing.

Then she continued, "About my feelings. Remembering all the time I spent with you made me realize that….I love you, Hibiki-sensei!"

Hibiki nodded and gave her a wide smile, "Yes, but you were very young and you didn't exactly understand your own feelings."

"Eh! What do you mean," she blurted.

"When I was cross-dressed as a woman while being your teacher, you only saw me as a surrogate mother," he explained. "I reminded you of your deceased mother. What you wanted was not a lesbian girlfriend but rather a mother figure whom you needed badly."

"Why do you say such things? It's not funny at all, sensei. No one can replace my mom." Fuuko sounded offended.

"I am serious. Can you picture the female Hibiki-sensei as your mother?"

"But…sensei,"

"Try to close your eyes, think slowly and compare your mother to me. But imagine me in my womanly disguise instead of my real self," he insisted.

Okay," she resigned as she followed his instructions. She closed her eyes and conjured separate images of her mother and the female Hibiki in her mind. She mixed two images and surprisingly, they blended into one another and superimposed over each other. The female Hibiki replaced her mother. In next moment, the female Hibiki was replaced by her mother again. Again, the image of her mother was replaced by the image of the female Hibiki again. The same flashes repeated again and again. She slowly opened her eyes again and then turned to stare at him.

"You are right, sensei," she admitted. Hibiki nodded warmly at her.

"Um, what about you? Are your feelings for me those of a father?"

He hesitated for a moment until he finally said, "No, Fuuko-chan. I tried to picture you as a daughter, but I honestly can't imagine it. I was kind of attracted to you,"

"Oh, I see. So you like me, sensei?"

"Yes, I do, even though you are 8 years younger than me," But let me ask you, "have you any feelings for the male Hibiki? The real me?"

Raising her eyebrows, she looked carefully and closely at the face of the male Hibiki and was surprised to see how much he looked different from his female self. She also realized that she was still infatuated with the female Hibiki even though she knew the teacher and the bra-man were the same. She pondered, 'Can I have different feelings for the real Hibiki Amawa?'

She said "Well, I don't know much about the male Hibiki but if the female Hibiki is the real Hibiki, then it means I like you, right? Bra-man, you and the female teacher are the same person, isn't it right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, give me time to get to know the masculine side of you and maybe I'll get to know my feelings," she continued. Then she added, "if I'm mature enough to understand them."

"I'm glad to hear that. Let's begin as a man and a girl, not a woman and a girl," Hibiki smiled at Fuuko. She smiled back, rested her head on his right arm and wrapped the lower part of his arm around both of her arms.

"The night is late. Shall I accompany you to your dorm?" Hibiki said, looking down at the 15-year old girl's innocent face.

"Sure." They were looking forward to his return to Seitow Sannomiya Academy the next day. While neither of them could wait for it, they wondered what would happen to their relationship in the future.