Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts/バカとテストと召喚獣

By Inoue Kenji

I don't own anything.

Me, Minami, and Our Circumstances

A Fanfic by Takagi

Short A/N: Thank you very much for reading "Me, Minami and Hazuki, and Our Activities" !

This is the sequel, so make sure you read the predecessor first!

Chapter 9: "Result"

Two weeks have passed since my trip with Minami and Hazuki-chan. I went through it by studying as if there's no tommorow. At home, I studied from the notes Mizuki and Minami always share. At school, I used every break time to go to the library. There, Mizuki and Minami had given their best to lecture me. Also, that masculine girl told me that in her free time, she paid more time to improve her Japanese reading, which had always been a hurdle for her to achieve a maximum point for subjects that's written in Japanese. As far as I concerned, her reading skill had significantly improved by Saturday.

Today is the day they'll announce the score of our exam. I've put my best effort, so the only thing I could do now is praying for my score to get into the top 5 at school so Shimada-san won't bring Minami back to Germany!

Ah, speak of the devil.

"Morning, Minami! Mizuki!"

"Ah, Aki. Good morning."

"Akihisa-kun, good morning!"

We entered the school building and got changed into the indoor shoes. It's rare to bump into Minami or Mizuki in the morning. I must have woken up too early today. Usually, I get changed at the locker alone and Ironman picks me.

"So today is the day, huh?" she muttered.

"Yeah," I replied. "No worries. I'm sure we'll do good!"

Upon hearing my statement, Minami turned at me, "I don't know about that. I won't be so sure."

"Don't say that, Minami-chan. I agree with Akihisa-kun! We've done so much on studying after all! There's no reason to be pessimistic!" she clenched her hand.

Err… Actually, there's also a huge chance for me to miss the top 5! Am I just being too optimistic? Or is it because I'm sure I can, for the first time in high school, score better than a class-A student? Well, maybe down to my first time fighting for a mid-term exam (really) seriously.

We continued walking to our class, passing the new building to the other old side of the building where our beloved 2-F class belonged.

…

"Now, I'm going to give you back the result of the exam!" Ironman shouted from the podium.

This is it… My assumption is that we have to get a total score of 3000 to surely get into top 5. It's based on the fact that Kirishima-san's is always around 3500. It sounds impossible, but I must get it! For her sake!

"Yoshii Akihisa!"

"Yes!" I stood up from the floor and walked towards the blackboard.

Before he handed me the envelope consists of my score, Ironman stared at me with a serious look. Well, he's always been having a serious look, but this time it's more serious than his usual iron face. "Here."

"Thank you, sensei."

I walked back to my seat and opened up the envelope very slowly.

And found myself astonished from the content.

"You look pale. Just how bad is your score?" asked Yuuji from his seat.

"Akihisa-kun…"

I gazed upon my teacher who's still standing at the podium and he's still staring at me. The super rigid face of his slowly turned into a vicious grin and said, in front of the class, "Congratulations, Yoshii."

The whole class suddenly turned their heads on me. They looked as if they've just heard something sacred. Even I myself couldn't believe that Ironman has just congratulated me. The most evil teacher a school can have. But what's more surprising is the thing I'm seeing with my eyes.

I got the total score of 2777… I thought this is just a mirage or my imagination, but it's not! There's really a '2' behind the '7'! This… This must be it! The proud feeling because my brutal effort paid off! This is too good to be true!

A pair of emerald eyes met my watery brown orbs. Ah, that's right!

"Sensei!"

"What is it?" he replied, after handing another envelope to another classmate of mine.

"May I see the rankings?"

"Hmph. Here."

I approached him and took the paper from his hand. The header says 'Fumitzuki High 11TH Grade - Top 10 Rankings'. Ah this has got to be it. I scanned the paper thoroughly… and… found my name there.

"It's hard to believe we wrote the name of an idiot like you in that sheet. I must say, you've done a great job. I guess my hellish supplementary lesson finally got you," he uttered. "Why do you look sad? You should be grateful to become 9th best at school!"

"NINTH BEST? That Yoshiii?"

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"There has got to be some kind of error!"

This is like a dream comes true…

However…

The ranking doesn't do well…

The top 5 is still dominated by class-A as always…

Kirishima Shouko – 3607 points
Himeji Mizuki – 3580 points
Toshimitsu Kubo – 3300 points
Kinoshita Yuuko – 3210 points
Aiko Kudou – 3206 points

While the rest of the standing are surprisingly dominated by class-F.

Shimada Minami – 3092
Miho Satou – 2940
Sakamoto Yuuji – 2803
Akihisa Yoshii – 2777

For God's sake…

… Mission failed…

I looked at Minami with sorrowful eyes. 'I am sorry, Minami' is what I wanted to say, but the words didn't left my mouth. I just handed the sheet back to Ironman, who was about to leave the class, and then walked back to my empty seat with feelings of remorse and frustration.

It's that vixen's win… Even though I've given my all, I still can't make it make it to top 5… DARN IT!

Soon as I folded my legs and bump my head to the tea table, I heard an angelic voice in a concerned tone, "Akihisa-kun, is there something wrong?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?" I replied.

"You crying, Akihisa-kun."

What? Crying?

"Err you know, I've just sliced an onion, that's all! Hahahaa."

"Akihisa-kun…"

"Ok. T—These are tears of happiness, Mizuki! Me, who once had the lowest score can make it into the top 10!"

"I see…"

Her smile was bittersweet. It was like she didn't trust me, whatever. I rested my head on my crossed-arms on the table and closed my eyes. How should I tell Minami? Argh. Why is this happening? Why?

What should I do?

The sky is already orange and I haven't found a way out for this. Nothing came up to my mind, absolutely nothing, even though I've pulled out all of my energy in my body to think up something. I can't even walk properly when I tried to walk the bathroom. Mizuki had offered me her support, but I obviously refused. The FFF will murder me for sure if I were to accept a girl's help to walk to men's bathroom.

Now that I'm sitting alone in the toilet, I dazed off for a moment. My hands unconsciously grab my hair and pull it verociously.

"DAMN IT!"

I've gone through hell. Thrashing away all my desire to relax and put all my efforts to study. I was so focused on doing it. Not even Mizuki's beauty could divert my concentration from the lesson during our studies. Not even my favorite show could stop me from studying at home. I even became Ironman's food last Saturday, but I still could not make it! I'm a failure!

Suddenly, the school bell rang. Which means, time to go home for the students.

"Aki…"

"This voice… Minami?" But I'm not sure. There's no way she'd go all the way here to men's bathroom, even going as far as trespassing the border of gender.

"Yes. It's me."

"REALLY?"

"Wait, don't come out. Meet me at the gate."

I heard the bathroom's door banging the wall. I quickly run back to the classroom, which has already empty. Mizuki who usually goes home together with me, told me that she has something to do, so she'd leave first.

In a minute, I'm already at the gate and met Minami.

She impatiently said, "Aki, I just want to inform you that…."

"… My mother is taking me tomorrow."

Regret, grief, guilty, are what I'm feeling right now after getting shot by Minami's revelation. My head is so heavy that I can't lift it.

"I see… We will send you off then…"

"Thank you," Minami held my hand, "Thank you for everything." She let go of it after muttering something and then left, vanishing between the crowds of people on the street.

So tomorrow it is… The last day I'd see her.