Hello again to everyone reading this and just a few notes before you start:
As always "Conversation" English while "conversation" Japanese.
Also, there was a typo in the last chapter, Adic was supposed to be Adin and I have since changed it, and I don't know when it will come up next so I figured I'd tell you now. I hope you enjoy the next installment of the story!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thellin was waiting by the train station with an impatient foot tap and an occasional glance at his watch. He was already uncomfortable in the suit he had to wear for his first day at his new job, and the fact that he was going to be working with kids his age, but the fact that he had to pick up Negi from the train station and show him the way to the school coupled with Negi being late was turning all of his uneasiness into anger. "What the hell is taking him so long." He glanced around the station that lead from the airport, "We'll miss the last trolley at this rate."
Finally, running out of the station in a brown traveling cloak wearing a large backpack with his staff strapped onto the back, Negi came out of the station smiling and shouting, "Thellin, hello!" Negi had a big cheesy looking grin on his face and Thellin immediately tried to conceal his anger.
"Yo. We're running late, so hurry and follow me." Thellin began walking off down the street at a brisk pace, with which Negi could easily keep up. Trying to change the subject off of Negi's arrival, since the last thing Thellin wanted at the moment was to start yelling at the kid, Thellin asked, "You finished learning Japanese, right?"
Smiling, Negi replied in near flawless Japanese, "Of course, it's not perfect but I think I learned pretty well. What about you?"
"I speak okay Japanese," came the somewhat choppy response, "is not perfect yet." Approaching the station Thellin grabbed Negi's arm, "Come on, the trolley's boarding." Thellin and Negi barely managed to squeeze into the trolley and Thellin sighed, "If you had been earlier we could have made one of the last packed trolleys, you know." One of the girls in front of Thellin leaned over and whispered something to her friend as he was talking.
"Sorry," came a somewhat distracted response from Negi as he looked around, "does something seem a little odd here to you?" The girls that had been standing in front of Negi turned around a little after Negi asked his question and Thellin choose to ignore him.
"Hey there, I think you missed your stop little boy." She spook directly to Negi, "the elementary school was the last stop and the only school left on this train is the Mahora Academy stop."
Her friend butted in at this point, and leaned down close to Negi saying, "Yeah, and I don't think you'd quite fit in there." The girls hair rubbed down across Negi's face, rubbing his nose.
Negi started to say, "Oh, I'm actually going to-to-to" unable to hold back Negi let loose a large sneeze, sending a giant gust of wind through the trolley. It was at this point when Negi noticed all of the girl's skirts flying into the air that he realized why he seemed a little out of place. As soon as he realized he turned to Thellin, who was wiping a little bit of blood dripping out of nose with the back of his hand, and asked, "Why are there only girls on this trolley?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Thellin replied, "They're going to school?" Then, after a short moment during which time he regained his composure Thellin hit Negi on the head, a little harder then needed, and said in a low voice, "Idiot, watch what your doing."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As the trolley came to a stop in front of the giant school, the occupants seemed to unload in record time. Grabbing Negi, who was attempting to wait for all the girls to exit like a gentleman, and dragging him out by the collar, Thellin pulled Negi out of the cart and began heading towards the school. "Hurry, or you'll be late. I've got some things to take care of so your on your own." Thellin used Negi arm to give him a toss to get him going, and Negi sped off towards the school while Thellin sort of meandered towards the school. He sighed, "I wonder if this qualifies as the beginning of the end?"
Approaching the steps of the school, girls passing him by on both sides, Thellin let loose a smirk and pondered aloud, "I wonder if Negi's realized this is an all girls school yet." However, as he was nearly on the steps, Thellin saw Negi still down below, next to two girls and talking with one who was on his level. He watched the scene for a moment, trying to figure out who Negi was talking too, only to see Negi once again sneeze. This time, however, there was someone directly in front of him. Thellin just shook his head as he saw winds rip at the poor girls clothing. "I give up."
Retracing the steps he had taken to Nitsuta's office before, Thellin arrived and knocked on the door. Nitsuta opened the door and stepped out. "Hello, Thellin-san. I worked out the plan with Shizuna-sensei so that she will introduce Negi-sensei to the class first and then we'll introduce you." After a moment he said, "Try not to do anything radical or trouble inducing, as it will already he hectic." Then added, "Oh, and after your introduced to the class I will show you the area that the headmaster has approved for you to use."
Nitsuta looked down at his watch, then said, "It will still be a little while before its time to introduce you to the class so you can go ahead and relax and have a cup of coffee if you'd like it."
Thellin shook his head, "Although I appreciate the thought, I will pass." Then, with a sort of awkward grimace asked, "How is my Japanese?"
"Understandable." Nistuta left it at that and poured himself a cup of coffee. After another minute or two he walked back into his office and pulled out a notebook for Thellin. "This is for you, it has all of the students you will be looking after in it."
Thellin took the book and thanked him as he began looking through it. On the first two pages was a class list, with a picture of all the students and on the follow pages were a slightly larger picture of the student with room to make notes. He flipped through the notebook and stopped on student number eight. Even though he was far enough away from the girl he had seen earlier, he recognized the bells. "Kagurazaki Asuna," he mumbled to himself. Letting loose a sigh Thellin muttered to himself, "At least it can't get any worse."
The time passed and Nitsuta finally said, "Alright, let's head out to the classroom and get you introduced to the class. Negi should already be being introduced right now." The two walked out of the room and down the hall as Thellin began to mentally prepare himself.
As they arrived at the door reading 2-A, the door was still open and an older woman with large breasts was standing in the doorway watching the inside of the classroom. "Wait here a moment, Thellin-san." Nitsuta walked into the room where there was a pandemonium of girls flocked around the child teacher who was trying to fend himself off from the questions. "Alright, everyone calm down and take your seats!" He spoke gruffly and angrily as the girls scattered away from the battered Negi. "In addition to your new English teacher, I'll be introducing you to the new guidance counselor who will be working with your class as an assistant counselor." Shizuna stepped to the side making way for Thellin to enter as Nitsuta called out, "You can come in and introduce yourself now."
Slowly walking into the room to a rather surprised class, Thellin said, "Hello, my name is Thellin Herose and I will be working as an assistant guidance counselor for class 2-A, nice to meet you." The class burst out again as many people directed questions at Thellin that he attempted to answer.
"Did you go to the same school as Negi?"
"Yes."
"How old are you?"
"Fourteen."
"Are you from Wales too?"
"More or less."
The questions kept coming but one of the girls in the back said, "Wait just a second." Everyone stopped and looked back at the girl. She was sitting near the back of the class and the most distinguishable feature that Thellin recognized was her glasses, "A ten year old teacher is already hard to swallow, but a fourteen year old guidance counselor? We're supposed to get advice from someone our age? How does that even make any sense?"
Thellin cringed, he was hoping that this question wouldn't be asked or brought up, since he had no good answer to it. However, he was saved by Nitsuta who said, "Alright, that's enough questioning. We have other things we need to take care and we should let Negi-sensei get on with teaching his class."
"Oh, yes. However, I do hope that I will have a chance to talk with each of you individually sometime soon," said Thellin. "Good luck with your classes." Leaving the room, Thellin felt like he could breath again, and Nitsuta who was out shortly after sighed.
Taking upon a lecturing tone he said, "When the students approached you like that you shouldn't have caved in and answered their questions so quickly like you did. That was like proving to them that you didn't have the situation under control and I was trying to give you a chance to get it under control but in the end I had to step in." After a moment he said, "Class 2-A is the rowdiest, most ill-behaved class, so you'll have to keep on your toes around them."
"Alright, I understand. Can you show me the area that I'm going to be doing grounds keeping work on?" Nitsuta nodded and lead Thellin down the hall, out the doors, and to a part of the campus that seemed to be in fairly poor shape.
Looking around at the trash and the torn up grass Nitsuta said, "Students hang out here sometimes, so it's a little beat up." Thellin walked around the area for a minute or two, picking up a piece or two of trash and throwing it into a trash bag when Nitsuta said, "Oh, and I forgot to tell you earlier but the headmaster wanted to see you with after these classes are over."
"Okay, I'll head over there when I hear the bell." As Nitsuta left Thellin began picking up more and more trash, trying to get the area more or less clean. Finally the bell rang, reminding the distracted Thellin that he was supposed to go and see the principle.
By the time he arrived Negi was already there with two girls, one of which he recognized as the Asuna girl from earlier. They appeared to be having something partway between an argument and a conversation, depending on which of them you were to ask. "Why should we have to let Negi stay with us?" Asuna was the loudest of all of them.
"It's just for a little while, until we find other more appropriate lodgings for Negi-sensei." The headmaster spoke like he was asking nothing of the two girls.
The other girl, who had long brown hair said, "Come on Asuna, it's not nearly as your making it out to be. Besides if grandpa says it's okay then it'll be fine."
At this point Thellin knocked on the door and said, "You had called for me, sir?"
Asuna exploded, "Oh, don't tell me your expecting us to let him stay with us too?"
Thellin immediately retorted, "Sorry to disappoint you, but I already have lodgings." Then after a moment asked, "And while I have the two of you here can I get your names just so I can remember them?"
The louder girl introduced herself first, "I'm Kagurazaki Asuna."
The other girl introduced herself next as, "Konoe Konoka here. Nice to meet you."
Thellin's jaw nearly dropped, "Wait, Konoe Konoka?!"
The school dean said, "Ah, yes, I forgot to tell you that my granddaughter would be in the class your working with."
"Have I met you before, Thellin-San?" asked Konoka with a slightly confused look.
Thellin shook his head saying, "No, no. It's just … Nevermind. Nice to meet you both and I hope we can get along in the future."
The principle said, "Well, now that the lodging issue is taken care of for Negi sensei, I would appreciate it if you two could show Negi sensei to his room, Asuna-san, Konoka."
Konoka, Asuna, and Negi exited the room, leaving just the headmaster and Thellin. After the others were out of the room Thellin said, "Couldn't have told me she was in the class earlier, could you?"
"And ruin the surprise?"
"Ass."
"Sorry, what was that?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Ah, yes, I have a few things for you." The headmaster walked over to one of the closets in his room and took out a brown paper bag that appeared to have quite a few contents in it. "I think this has everything you'll need. Oh, and you'll probably need to make an appearance in a few weeks."
Thellin looked though the contents of the bag and sighed, "Thanks. I appreciate it."
"Your welcome, and good luck with the grounds keeping and counseling." The headmaster went back to his seat and went back to looking over his papers.
"Thanks," said Thellin as he mumbled to himself, "Feels like I'm gonna need it."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So, did you all enjoy the third chapter? Have any comments? Anything you can give me is appreciated!