Clio, the muse of History

Inspiration: That one person everyone has, who stays with you and teaches you so much more than you ever thought. Cheers, Mr Housecroft!

Seigaku: As far as I'm concerned, Fuji is the most unchanged person on the team. All the others seem to go through changes barring Fuji. It's only in the Nationals OVA that Fuji grows and develops; until then, he seems to rest completely on his three counters. He rests on his history.

Fuji Syuusuke was someone who had never been, and could never be, considered normal. He could remember from when he was younger being different from the other children. Whilst they were concerned about being superheroes and avoiding the cootie infested girls, he was inside reading his books or just watching them go about their day.

He was always a lone wolf. He never really understood the need for him to interact with others. He didn't need them and would probably never need them. After all, he was different. Special. Better.

His parents, whilst immensely proud of their intelligent son, were a bit worried about his social isolation. He could recall seeing numerous clinicians and psychologists when he was little as his parents thought he was autistic. It wasn't that he didn't understand why others spent time together, he just didn't get why he had to do it.

When his little brother came along, he began to understand. He wanted to be around his brother and spend time with him. But he was, as much as it pained him to admit it, socially stunted. He didn't know how to "play nice" as his mother put it.

So he worked on it. He began to talk to his peers and play with them. He even made some "friends", just to help him interact with his brother better. But his brother didn't want to spend time with him and it hurt. But he wouldn't show that to anyone else. He hid it behind his smile and tried to compensate for this by throwing himself headfirst into being a "typical student".

In middle school, his grades were fantastic and he was the apple of his teacher's eyes. In high school, he was still the highest achiever in the year but he put more of his efforts into doing what is classmates were doing.

So he smiled all day, drank things he shouldn't, smoked things he couldn't pronounce and did things he wouldn't remember for fear of giving himself mental scars. They weren't his proudest moments but they taught him a lot about his character.

He had friends but he didn't want them. He was happy being alone and sadistic. He was perpetually bored with his life; he had no stimulation mentally as none of his peers were challenging. But he kept pretending.

So, when he went to university to study history, he had many reasons unknown to everyone else. He wanted to understand more about people to fit in better, after all, history is doomed to repeat itself. He wanted a course that would give him a chance to learn a lot factually, but history was also open to interpretation, which led him on to the main reason.

He wanted to find someone who could be a challenge. History was as good a major as any for that, given the number of opportunities for interpretation and therefore, verbal spars, which he did so enjoy.

Needless to say, he had high hopes for the future as he stood outside the Redbrick building that was, rather stereotypically in his opinion, partially covered in ivy. The black sign above the large wooden double doors proclaimed it to be the College of History.

He smiled his first genuine smile in years, sighed a deep breath and walked up the small flight of stairs to his first class of the semester in History.

As he entered the lecture theatre, he was a little surprised to find it empty. Completely empty. There was not another person in sight and Fuji had the rare opportunity of seeing the lecture theatre completely barren. It was larger than he had thought, but then again, the schedule said that this lecture was a joint lecture with the anthropology and geology students. The long benches ascended higher and higher and the seemingly comfortable plush seats were behind them. At the front, there was a large retractable screen for the lectures along with an overhead projector and, for some reason, a tennis ball.

'Odd,' Fuji thought but didn't dwell upon the thought for much longer. He began to search for a seat, trying to think of where he could sit to ensure he wasn't close enough to be called too eager but he wasn't too far away to be labelled a slacker.

Apparently, he'd spent so long searching for the perfect seat that he was still stood in the doorway when it opened again to allow other people entrance. One of whom walked straight into him and cause both of them to collide with the floor.

Fuji, who was face down on the floor smothered his growing ire with a placid smile and kindly asked the person to get off him when all he wanted to do was kick them somewhere that hurt. To their credit, the person in question was extremely apologetic, spluttering regrets over the laughter of his friends. He stood and offered his hand to Fuji to get up as he turned over. Fuji saw his bright red hair and equally bright blue eyes and took the offered hand.

"Sorry! I'm really sorry, nya!" he said, adding a curious cat sound to the end of his sentence.

"No worries," Fuji replied pleasantly. Fuji noticed that the strange person had yet to release his hand.

"I'm Eiji," the strange, seemingly perpetually happy person chirped, pumping Fuji's hand up and down.

"Fuji."

Eiji's smile grew, if possible and gave an extremely quick introduction of all his friends. They all seemed pleasant enough, if a little bland. There was the stern brunet -Tezuka- the tall brunet –Kawamura- the bespectacled raven haired –Inui- and finally, a fretting raven haired –Oishi.

"Come and sit with us Fuji!"

Fuji smiled and walked with Eiji to the seat, wondering if he'd either been given a vat of coffee that morning or if he'd been dropped on his head as a child. Fuji was thinking it was a combination of the two. Nevertheless, he plastered a vapid smile on his face and listened to Eiji chirp away like a hummingbird on amphetamines.

To the mercy of his ears, and his brain cells, which were steadily dying listening to Eiji prattle on about ice-cream, the rest of the students began to filter in to the lecture theatre. There was a growing buzz of noise that successfully drowned out the redhead and he almost sighed in relief. There was a loud clattering sound as everyone got out their pens and paper, preparing for the lecture.

They were poised and ready; all they needed now was the lecturer.

When the door opened next, Fuji honestly thought the person who entered was a late student. He was dressed in jeans and a red polo shirt –and was that a baseball cap?- and slouched in. He was soon corrected by the latecomer approaching the podium with a USB stick. A quick moment and he had the first slide of his lecture up on the screen for all to see.

There was no title, no graphics, nothing except his name. Echizen Ryoma.

"Right," he began in a bored tone, as though he'd much rather be somewhere else, "put your pens and paper away. I'll put the lecture up on the web so you don't have to copy it down.

"I want you to listen to what I'm saying. And pay attention. In my course you will be required to think. I know this may be a foreign concept for many of you, but do try at least." Fuji had to stifle a laugh.

"'For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.' Who said this?" he asked and was met with silence.

"Come on people! Pay attention! I'm not here to spoon feed this to you. Anybody?"

"Winston Churchill," Fuji voiced and he was immediately honed in on by Echizen-sensei. He saw his eyes for the first time and noted they were as electric as his were. A golden brown colour.

He received a smirk for his effort. "Well done, Fuji Syuusuke and yes, I know the names of everyone who is supposed to be in this room right now. It's nice to see that at least one person in the room is awake.

"Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister. Who can tell me why I'm telling you this in your first lecture of the course?"

Spurred on by Fuji's bravery, a few more souls voiced their answers this time around. Unfortunately for them, they weren't right so they were met with a glare from Echizen that could peel paint.

"No. Anyone else?" Fuji was surprised when the voice that had been irritating him all morning spoke up.

"That history isn't always right?" Eiji said and he too received a smirk.

"Yes. History is written by one person, by one country, by one side. Nine times out of ten, it's written by the victor or dominant party. It isn't always the truth, so take what you read with a pinch of salt, people.

"In this course, I'm going to teach you dates, and facts. I'll teach you figures, but even so, I don't expect you to just regurgitate what I tell you for the exams or for your future. I want you to question, I want you to give your opinions, I want you to contradict me and the textbook.

"I want you to think."

It was bustling in the café where they stopped for lunch. They managed to squeeze two tables together to make room for them all. Fuji was tempted not to join them, but he hadn't brought his lunch and the café was as good as anywhere else on campus.

So, he was once again surrounded by the hustle and bustle of other people he couldn't have cared less about if he tried. All credit to them, they did try and include him in their little circle, even Tezuka, who Fuji had learnt had the personality of a rock, but they weren't worth his time. No-one in high school was up to his level, why would these people be? It was an inevitability that he would never find someone at his intellectual level.

Fuji sighed into his wasabi rolls despondently. The others were loudly discussing their first lecture and Fuji was trying, and failing, to tune them out.

It was then that two of the second year students walked past them.

"Are you first years?" the taller one with the violet eyes asked. At their nods, he smiled even more. "You've just had Echizen-sensei haven't you?"

"Is he always like that?" Kawamura asked.

"Fshuu, yes," the grey eyed one responded, "he likes to make you think. Brilliant lecturer though; I learnt more from him than I did from any of the others. Definitely hard on you though."

"There can't be anything to learn from him that couldn't be taught by another person though," Fuji said aloud and quirked an annoyed eyebrow when he was met with laughter from the second years.

"Oh, you poor unfortunate soul. You're in for a rude awakening," the taller one laughed.

The other let out a small snigger. "Echizen-sensei is going to break you."

And then they were gone.

"The only history worth a damn is the history we make today. Who said it people?" they were once again in Echizen-sensei's lecture and they had realised within the first week what the tennis ball was for. If Echizen-sensei ever caught you dozing off or tuning out, the ball would be belted at your head within an instant. It was also used to call on people who hadn't answered in a while, and today, it was thrown full pelt towards Kawamura.

Lucky, the tall brunet caught it and correctly answered Henry Ford, but others hadn't been so lucky in the past. The two second years, who they had discovered were Momoshiro and Kaidoh, joined them frequently for lunch to help with projects or just to wind down with them. They had once told them a tale about Arai, a student in their year, who had been knocked unconscious by Echizen-sensei's near famous ball.

"Yes, Henry Ford. Now, Mister Ford was not a historian, nor was he an academic man. He was an industrialist who built cars. Yet, he said this. Why?"

It was just another lecture with Echizen-sensei.

Midway through the semester, Fuji began to understand what Momoshiro and Kaidoh meant when they said rude awakening. They had just gotten their first set of results back and Fuji was a little horrified. He'd spent his entire life being the highest in the grade, easily surpassing everyone else, so when he discovered that his essay had earned him a C, he was furious.

So furious he stalked up to Echizen-sensei at the end of his lecture to complain about it. Echizen looked at him as though he'd seen his type a thousand times and gestured for Fuji to follow him back to his office. Seated behind the large, paper covered oak desk, Echizen still looked like a child sitting in his father's office, but the look he pinned Fuji with was all adult.

"What is the problem, Fuji-kun?" he asked and didn't react at all when Fuji waved his essay in his face.

"You marked it wrong," he said pleasantly.

"Did I?" was the bland response. "What should I have graded it as?"

"An A," Fuji said and then something happened that he had never seen happen before. Echizen-sensei laughed.

"You've got to be kidding me," he managed to stutter out between snickers. "What is the first thing I told you to do this semester?" At Fuji's blank look, Echizen responded with: "Think! I told you to think!"

"Do you honestly think this essay is what you're capable of? It was a good essay, granted, but I have seen you. I know what you can do and this is nothing compared to that. This is abysmal. Maybe this will be a wakeup call for you.

"You've gone from being the only A student in your school to a class full of other A students, yes, even your friend Eiji was an A student in high school. We have to maintain the grading curve somehow, so naturally, some people drop down. And the people that drop down are those that don't work.

"You want to pass, you work for it. This is nothing like high school. If you think history is going to repeat itself and you're going to coast through my class, think again.

"Take this as a turning point. In fact, let me give you the options. You can do nothing to change, and let history repeat itself and flunk out or you can work harder and do better. If that's all, I have other things to do today."

And with that, he was dismissed and staring at the door of Echizen-sensei's office.

It was two weeks later when it all began to change. Eighteen years of repetition and it was changing. And Fuji could only hang on for the ride. It had started, just like Momoshiro said. Echizen-sensei was breaking him.

He was once again sat in the café with Eiji and his group of friends, contemplating the next assignment from Echizen-sensei. Normally in these discussions, Fuji remained silent; not wanting to participate and not wanting any help either. He'd never been in the position of needing help before.

They were around their usual table, its surface scattered with empty coffee cups and sugar packets as a testament to how long they'd been at it already. Fuji already had most of the assignment written up at home, but he had been struggling with one little section and no amount of reading had yielded the answer.

Lost as he was in his musings, he failed to hear Kawamura gently call his name until he reached out his hand and shook Fuji on the arm lightly. "Fuji, is everything ok?" he asked. Fuji was shocked for a second but quickly painted his smile back on.

"I'm fine, Kawamura. Just thinking about the assignment."

"Oh," Inui asked, "you looked as though you were having difficulty with something."

Fuji paused and wondered. Should he share his problem? He never had in the past but now was a time for change. Perhaps they could help. So he opened his mouth and started to explain his problem.

"Ah, I had difficulty with that as well," Tezuka voiced, stirring his tea casually. "Oishi gave me the book I needed for it yesterday. I could bring it in tomorrow if you would like?"

Just like that, Fuji's problem was solved.

Perhaps asking for help wasn't such a bad idea.

After that moment, after he had been broken out of his previous ways of thinking, Fuji changed. He began to do better in his assignments, but, more extraordinarily for him, he actually had friends. Real, genuine friends he socialised with outside the lecture theatre. They understood when he didn't want to talk and they helped when he had problems as well. He learned that helping them was a reward in itself.

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him." As usual, Echizen-sensei began his lecture with a quote. It was now the last semester of their first year, they would soon be entering exam month and it was the last ever lecture they would receive from Echizen-sensei.

So they had learnt what he wanted. It was without prompting that someone now spoke up "Dwight Eisenhower" and the lesson proceeded. It was a simple recap lesson about what could be on the exam, but it was only in the final few minutes, after the content was finished that Echizen-sensei explained his opener.

"History is important, of course. It makes and shapes you, but do not ever just lay there and let things happen, otherwise it will repeat itself. If you don't want something to happen, work hard to make sure it doesn't. History repeating itself is not inevitable.

"Learn from it and change your future. Good luck and if all goes to plan, I'll never have to see any of you again."

First year was over then and, true to his word, Fuji never saw Echizen-sensei again.

Ryuuzaki Sakuno walked into her first lecture of the semester with a nervous air. She took some deep breaths and found an empty seat next to a girl with pigtails. They began chatting and before they knew it, their lecturer walked in. He plugged in his USB stick and began.

"History is important. It makes you what you are. It is unchangeable but your future is liquid. You can change and shape it. How you choose to do so is because of your history. 'We are not makers of history, we are made by history.' Who said this?"

Silence.

"Come on people! Pay attention! I'm not here to spoon feed this to you. Anybody?"

"Martin Luther King," Sakuno nervously said and was, thankfully, met with a smile.

"Correct. What this means is that in this course, you can't rest on your laurels. I want you to work and I want you to think.

"I'm Fuji-sensei and welcome to History."

Next: Erato's Lyrics

R&R

Bumble x