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The following is a fan-based
FICTION
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Chapter 11: Doubt and Anger
Differently from the standard western school year, the Japanese school year was particularly unique when it comes to semesters.
The first semester started around April and finished by July 20 for the Summer holidays. And while Fuyuki wasn't exactly known to have warm summers due to the relatively chilling winds it was struck with the entire year, that didn't prevent families from taking steps into preparing for that specific holiday. So, it didn't come as a surprise when I was notified of this, and asked to provide some 'calmer' lessons to assuage the students to the time of the year.
Of course, it also reminded me to offer homework for the students to get done before their return. I still remember when I had to go through that, so, instead of putting a heavy workload for them to handle before the beginning of the second semester, I ultimately decided to just go through the standard lessons, leave normal homework as usual and then drop a modest amount of homework for them to deal before the end of summer.
Things were about to become interesting, and yet I was surprised when a gloomy Tatsuko wobbled up to my desk and gave me a letter provided by her father. Confused by this and the awkward mood taken by the little blonde, I proceeded to study the content of the message and… frowned.
"Your father wishes to enroll you in the summer school project?" I inquired back to the girl, and the revelation caused quite the uproar in the classroom.
"Heh?! But why?" One of the girls asked in shock.
"Yeah! Sensei, isn't Tatsuko-chan doing fine with her grades?" A boy pressed in confusion.
"Sensei, since Tatsuko is doing well at school, why would she need summer school?" Illya quipped, as confused as the rest.
I eyed the child in question, little Tatsuko flinching a bit at the attention she was getting, so I decided to be quite firm about the matter and prevent any misunderstanding. After all, her father was keen to explain why he took this decision. The therapist following her current situation told him that Tatsuko needed to keep up a steady study going even through the summer. Thus, summer school was seen as a proper way to handle this particular situation without having to employ private tutors. It was a cheap solution, but a good one since I was going to handle that kind of matter and I wasn't exactly inexperienced with someone like Tatsuko in my classroom.
"Tatsuko-san will be in summer school out of a choice rather than being forced onto this matter by any grade-related issues," I explained. "She will still be free from pursuing time with friends, but she will also still have to study from time to time."
It was a bit anomalous for children. A student wanting to still study by choice during summertime? 'Tatsuko is not a nerd' many were definitely thinking, but the point is that her situation hadn't been exactly clear to the rest of the class. Illya and other close friends knew since the blonde told them about it, so they were quick to connect this to that. There was no further explanation beyond that, and I began the lesson as if nothing odd had happened. Meanwhile I could spot Tatsuko behaving a little less cheerful than usual, but still appearing fairly happy with how this news ended up developing within the classroom.
The rest of the lesson proceeded smoothly, but I was surprised to learn that the matter was far from wrapped up. In fact, as the class ended and the morning break started, I was surprised to see that out of the kids that decided to stay behind, it was just Tatsuko and… she made it clear she wanted to talk with me by picking up her chair from beside my desk and move it so that she could sit right in front of me.
"Sensei, I want to talk with you about private stuff."
I blinked. "Is it tied to earlier today?"
"Yes."
"And what do you wish to ask me about?"
She paused for a moment, hesitating in the questioning as I could tell that whatever was gnawing at the child's mind.
"Am I weird?"
I blinked again, then I frowned at her. "In which regard?"
Her mouth opened, then closed and finally she narrowed her eyes back at me.
"What? There are many kinds of weird?"
"Yep," I assured. "Everyone has quirks, unique traits that can be 'good weird' and 'bad weird'."
"Oh," She hummed. "And what I have is-"
"An unfortunate one, but not a necessarily bad one," I replied quickly, surprising Tatsuko in the process.
"But… what would others think? Like, if I said what is going on with me, would they think..."
"Less of you as a person? Think of you as abnormal?" I guess and she nodded, causing me to snort. "Tatsuko-chan, I already told you that I don't promote any form of ridiculous judgment. And that kind of reaction would be just plain ignorance in that regard."
"But it's odd-"
"And we all are, young lady," I confirmed firmly, stopping her little self-hate. "You are unlucky for now. But that's not a condition which will last for too long if you keep up with that effort to fix it."
"But can I do it?" She asked, a bit upset by the overall situation. "It's just- what if it doesn't work?"
"...Hmm, you're being quite the brat now, you know that?"
"What? I'm not!"
"Well, let me try to show you how silly that mindset is," I remarked softly. "Do you know who Stephen Hawking is?"
Her mouth opened, a hint of recognition flashing from her gaze as she had heard that name before.
"Isn't he some important scientist?"
I nodded. "That's correct. He is a researcher which studies black holes and their effects. He is renowned for his formulas and his intelligence in discerning most of those secret details about space."
"But how does that connect to… me? I'm not a scientist," Tatsuko remarked and I chuckled, reaching out and ruffling her hair for being that silly. "Wha? Sensei, that's not nice!"
Say that again without smiling, I dare you.
"Stephen Hawking is also a scientist that is currently suffering from an illness called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS," I finally elaborated on the example. "The illness is known to affect muscles by making it from difficult to impossible to move one's body the more time passes."
Her eyes widened. "Really?"
I nodded. "He was blindsided by it when the news came up, and he almost gave up his career as a scientist because of it."
…
"But?"
I smiled. "But he didn't. He is still a valuable part of the scientific community and revered as an expert of his field. He is bound to a chair with less to no chance of moving around without assistance. He has people, friends and family, which drives him to keep fighting it despite how hopeless it is. He isn't giving up no matter how cruel the situation is."
"So… I shouldn't give up like that."
I nodded. "Tatsuko-chan, you're a strong individual regardless of what kind of doubts you have. You are young, yes, but that doesn't mean you lack what you need to stand up and make up for this little issue. It's not going to be there permanently, not when you're putting this much effort into dealing with it and you have others that provide you with the support to handle it. Just, don't expect this to be any easy- you need to be strong because of that."
"I… I see," She lowered her head and stared at the desk. "Thank you for telling me this, Sensei."
"At times we… we find ourselves missing our reasoning- why we do things that can be quite troublesome and prevent us from being at our happiest," I told her, drawing her gaze back at me. "It's not a fair situation, that much I can concede to you, but never expect life to be kind. Life will be what you wish for it to be. Do you want to be happy? To have others to be happy too? You will have to learn to fight for that. That's how you will truly find the truest form of happiness."
…
"Yes!" Tatsuko agreed earnestly. "I will- I will not let this bring me down. I will do summer school and still manage my happiness."
"That's the right drive, but remember that one thing is saying and the other is doing."
The little blonde grinned. "I am no quitter, sensei!"
I chuckled, with the girl finally leaving and joining the others for the break. I was left to do the paperwork, but I was relieved to know that Tatsuko got the pep-talk she actually needed. Sure, I could tell she was going to have doubts even beyond today, but if I, or anyone else that knew of the situation and cared for her, was around to cheer her up, I could tell she was going to be just fine.
Of course, as school ended I was also given a bit of news from Quartz. A new Servant had been spotted, which meant I would have to go out and start dealing with that problem later that night. I could tell it was going to be tough, but I had tested the Assassin Card and I had a few tricks up my sleeve in case the situation ended up turning quite bad for me and… Elizabeth.
Yes, the girl decided to tag along and, with her usual charm, came also a sense of… whining.
"Huff, Mastah! Do you think this cur is coming anytime soon?"
I sighed loudly as I heard the umpteenth whining coming from the girl. Yes, I know- she can be like that. But there was a reason why I just didn't go solo. And it was a stupid reason too. We were currently sitting by one of the benches near the park.
We were still near some of the mid-tall buildings of the center-city, but keeping quiet 'in the middle' as the Servant was lurking somewhere in the area. The real issue was that I wasn't even sure if we were going to be facing another Assassin or not. This wasn't exactly shaping as the same situation with the Ainsworth- no, these cards were coming from somewhere else, and I wasn't sure who was behind this and why they were doing this.
Still, the culprit had to be powerful enough to create these cards, boost them the same way they did with Camilla/Elizabeth and then was attacking much earlier to the beginning of the canon Prillya timeline.
"Eli-chan, I gave you the chance to stay at home," I pointed out, reminding the girl that she wasn't exactly forced to be there.
"But Mastah! I want to be here and help you," The girl rebuked, her tail wagging in frustration at that comment.
"And I'm glad for the helpfulness," I admitted calmly. "But whining doesn't exactly help here, Eli-chan."
She pouted a bit at that blunt response, but didn't say much about it. Either she knew that answering that would result in more whining which would have proved my point, or there was something else drawing her attention away. I was leaning more on the former, but as I glanced to the side and back at her as she kept quiet, I saw her posture tense, her eyes wide open and a hint of fright flashing on her face.
I tracked where her gaze was aimed at and I felt a bit terrorized by what I found myself. Something was looking at us from one of the nearby rooftops. The armor, the exposed muscular chest with red runes and the vicious red eyes flashes, and the razor-like gloves that were burning a blood red. Yep, I had enough hints to know how screwed we were at the moment. And it didn't take too long for Elizabeth to regain hold of her voice and provide a legitimate question on the matter.
"M-Mastah, what is that?"
"That, Eli-chan, is something very bad. A Berserker."
Also why the hell is his Noble Phantasm already activated?!
Cu Chulainn Alter roared in challenge, jumping off the roof at incredible speed, and his pace was so quick that he could have easily skewered us before we could have moved away from his trajectory. Luckily enough, I had switched to my 'Assassin mode' from the bat-like theme my suit had taken in the process, and I had a tool that was strong enough to handle that situation.
The Berserker expected an easy win, and definitely ignored the Iron Maiden slamming onto his side and pushing him off-trajectory. A loud explosion ensued at that development, with the deranged Servant looking a bit dazed by the matter and giving us the chance to do the best thing we could do right now: running!
"Waaaah!"
Despite being a 'Brave' individual, Eli-chan had happily accepted the order I gave as we bolted off into the streets of Fuyuki, a furious Berserker after our butts and ready to shred anything between us and him. I doubted bombs, Iron Maidens, and Eli-chan's current skills were going to be enough to handle this sturdy bastard and… I was clueless on what to do about it.
Truly not a good day to feel cursed by bad gacha.
AN
Yes, I know, I went for the cliché option but… let's just say that this gives me a lot of breathing room on how to solve this in a clever but funny way. Especially since the strongest form of Cu Chulainn can only be beaten by the greatest entity that can provide him a sudden death. No spoiler, but the next chapter might include a Berserker which might end up crying for terrifying reasons. Beware the BS power of Kaleidosticks!
REVIEW Q&A!
TakoEatemployee: And now there's Rushia. Speaking of which, I have a Vtuber snippet series on QQ and I have a few good surprises about the 'gone' Vtubers in that regard.
Halo: Definitely.
Someperson: I may end up including all five, but the first one is going to be one of them that has been seriously 'ignored' due to lack of exposure within FGO and other series.
Mckenray: It's Caren stalking someone. I think pity is expected by pretty much everyone.
Darkscythe Drake: They already met. But there is one character that the MC will soon met and deserves some attention since she has appeared in a side-comic of Prillya.