"Senpai," one First Year delinquent said one fine day. "It's so boring nowadays."

Sports Day was weeks ago, and since then, nothing of excitement had taken place.

"How dare you!" another exclaimed, spitting his cigarette out in his excitement. "Are you saying that it's boring with Maruyama senpai around?"

"No!" the first quickly protested. "I just meant that there's nothing to amuse ourselves with, and no one to help us do things! Not only is life boring, but boringly tedious!"

"Hmm," the bulky upperclassman in question said thoughtfully, stroking his goatee. He took a drag of his cigarette before continuing. "We should get a underclassman around. To entertain us and do things for us."

"Oh!" First Year delinquent, Atsushi exclaimed, eyes lighting up in glee. "I know someone who will definitely entertain and service us to the best! He's in my class, he's called Sakamoto-"

Maruyama choked on his cigarette and stood up in alarm. "No! No! No! Anyone but Sakamoto! No Sakamoto!"

Atsushi's shoulders drooped in disappointment.

"We must," Maruyama said determinedly. "… must get a female." He pondered. "And one who will not talk about Sakamoto at all."

"Oh!" Atsushi exclaimed again. "I think I know someone who fits the bill!"

His friend, Mario, caught his eye and grinned.

- X -

During the lesson a period before break, Midori opened her pencil case to find a note hastily shoved in beside her eraser. She took it out and smoothed it, reading its contents.

'Meet me at the third floor classroom at the end of the corridor during your break. -8823'

'Hayabusa senpai?' Midori thought to herself. No doubt, part of her was excited that the charming and mysterious senpai would want to meet her. (After all, she did harbor a certain fondness for Hayabusa.)

When break came along, Midori practically ran out of her class, hurrying to the designated meeting area. While she was rushing her way out, she dropped the slip of paper. Sakamoto, one for keeping the cleanliness in the class, picked the paper out.

He looked at the scrawling on it with a frown. This writing seemed familiar; it was like the ones he received back when Hayabusa's adoring underclassmen wanted to coerce him into fighting the senpai.

"Well, well," Sakamoto sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose bridge before standing up, and making his way out of the class.

- X -

Meanwhile, at the Year Two block, Maruyama smiled at Hayabusa the moment the bell rang for break.

"Yo, Hayabusa. Could you get five packets of curry rice from the cafeteria?"

Hayabusa looked at him wearily. The day's special on the menu was curry rice, and there was bound to be a queue for it. "Can't you get one of the kouhais to do it…?"

"I promised them I would treat them to curry rice today. And I'm going to be telling them some fighting tips too. Wouldn't want to waste any time." He pressed a bill into Hayabusa's palm. "Come on, Hayabusa, do it for your kouhais who adore you."

Hayabusa sighed and trudged down to the cafeteria. Maruyama smiled to himself and made his way to the third floor classroom at the end of the corridor, where the other delinquents were already waiting.

- X -

A few moments later, a dark green haired girl skipped into the classroom. Upon seeing the faces of so many delinquents, she faltered, hesitating near the door.

Midori took a tentative step into the class, scanning the faces. Hayabusa was nowhere to be found. The delinquents were grinning at her, and taking steps towards her.

"Excuse me," she said, trying to take a step back. "I… must have gotten the wrong class."

"No," one laughed. (She recognised him as Mario from class.) "You didn't."

She tried to leave, but before she could do so, a bulky, old-looking upperclassman stepped forward, grabbing her wrist and dragging her into the class. She yelped in shock, and just as she did so, a delinquent near the door slammed it shut.

"Come on, Katagi-chan," Ken-Ken laughed. "It's your fault for making your little crush on Hayabusa-senpai so obvious! We all saw the way you helped him last time."

Mario and Atsushi nudged each other, laughing along with Ken-Ken.

"Now," Maruyama said, rubbing his hands together as he grinned at Midori in front of him. "Let's have you entertain us."

- X -

At the canteen, Hayabusa sighed as the queue started moving forward. Just before he was next in line to order, he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. He turned to be greeted by the sight of Sakamoto.

"Senpai," he said in greeting.

"Ah, it's you, Sakamoto," Hayabusa replied. "What brings you here?"

"Actually…"

- X -

Back at the classroom, Midori found herself being backed into a corner as the delinquents advanced upon her.

"You're the shrine maiden of that shrine behind school, right?" Maruyama asked, his beady eyes fixed on her. "What is the title given to you again? Something miho?"

"Midori Miho," Atsushi quipped.

"Ah yes," Maruyama said. "That's right. Come, cute kouhai. Entertain us. Buy drinks for us and serve it to us while performing some of your ritual dances."

"Ritual dances are to be performed for the gods and with honor!" Midori cried in anger. "Not used as some form of entertainment!"

The delinquents hooted with laughter. "It's like a kitten roaring in anger!"

"Yo, Midori Miho! Wear your cute little shrine maiden costume and serve us orange juice while you're at it!"

Maruyama nodded. "Yes, aren't these part of your costume?" he asked while tugging at the ribbons at the top of her head.

She gritted her teeth together, reaching up and slapping his hand away. "Don't you dare get your hands near my shrine maiden attire!"

Maruyama was offended. He grabbed her wrist in anger. "Who do you think you're hitting, little girl?"

Midori glared at him, struggling against his iron grip. "Let go of me-!"

"What's going on here?!" a voice demanded as the door slammed open.

Everyone in the room turned to face the source of the voice. Upon seeing Hayabusa standing at the doorway, eyes flashing in anger and certainly not holding on to any packets of curry rice, they paled.

"Hayabusa senpai!" Midori said in relief. Finally, a face she recognize.

Hayabusa's gaze focused on Midori and Maruyama.

At once, Maruyama dropped his hold on Midori, laughing shakily. "Yo, Hayabusa, you're back early! Haha, did curry rice sell out?"

"Back a second too late," Hayabusa said, matching towards Maruyama. "But still, it was thanks to Sakamoto that I was notified of… this."

"Sakamoto again!" Maruyama said in alarm.

He saw Hayabusa's hand reach out in his direction. On reflex, he raised his arms in front of him protectively. However, instead of Hayabusa knocking the daylights out of him, Hayabusa took hold of Midori, pulling her out of the classroom with him.

Midori looked at the backview of Hayabusa as they walked along the corridors, and then at his hand around her wrist. His hold on her was gentle, and gave her a sense of warm; so unlike Maruyama's grip on her. She was so caught up in those feelings that she scarcely registered that Hayabusa led her back to her class.

"Ah, senpai- " by the time she came to her senses and tried to thank him, he already turned his back and made his way back to the Year Two block.

Once again, Hayabusa came to her rescue.

- X -

Hayabusa, of course, couldn't simply cut ties with the delinquents for such a matter. Instead, he gave them a stern talking to, lecturing them about how dishonorable it is to pick on a underclassman, much less a defensive one.

("Defensive, my foot," Maruyama muttered, rubbing the hand she slapped. He clammed up the moment Hayabusa shot him a glare.)

When school ended, Hayabusa took out his phone to find a new message.

'Hi senpai,

Just wanted to thank you for helping me out earlier. Thank you very much. ^_^

- Katagi Midori'

- X -

Midori's phone buzzed in her pocket when she was making her way back to the shrine. She took out her phone and saw that she received a new message.

'No worries. How did you get my number? -8823'

Midori smiled, thinking to when she asked her classmate, Sera, whom looked up to Hayabusa for his 'stylishness'. Sera exclaimed that he knew almost everything about everyone fashionable in school before passing her the upperclassman's number.

She replied after changing into her shrine maiden attire.

'When you know a lot of senpai's fans, it's not too hard to find out things about you. They even tried to tell me what you eat for breakfast daily when all I wanted was your phone number! ^_~ (LOL)'

'…

You're impossible, Midori Miho.'

She grinned while reading his message, making one last reply before pocketing her phone.

'As are you, senpai.'

Midori sighed for the umpteenth time, staring at the worksheet in front of her and frowning at the questions. She opened her textbook, jabbed the calculator, even used a different pencil (people had lucky pencils, after all) – but alas, she still couldn't get the right answer.

School was already dismissed for near an hour, and Midori was still in school, sitting in the school library, nearly tearing her hair out in frustration over seemingly harmless math questions.

Her math exam were tomorrow, and her math teacher had given her back her math mock practice paper earlier today. Her teacher didn't say much, only clapped her shoulder, shook her head at all, and asked her to please try to study hard for tomorrow.

Midori looked at the mock paper, thought of the math exam, and decided that worshipers could wait until tomorrow to pray.

And that was why Midori was in the school library, trying to study and hopefully pass math.

She was engrossed in some question involving three triangles before a voice whispered in her ear.

"You had better have a damn good reason why you're ignoring all my texts since this morning."

She jumped. "Hayabusa-senpai!" she exclaimed in a whispered cry, mindful that they were in the library.

Hayabusa stood in front of her, one hand on his hip and another in his pocket, frowning down at her. Midori took a peek at her phone, only to see that she had five unread messages.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly as he took a seat next to her, his arm resting at the back of her chair. "You know I'd usually reply, but I'm busy studying… Speaking of which, senpai, don't the Year Twos have math exams tomorrow too?"

He gave a non-committal hum of reply. "It's only math."

"Only math?!" she could have shouted if she wasn't in the library.

He smirked. "And I suppose the reason you ignored my texts and are not in the shrine right now is because of math?"

"If the prayers of worshipers are sincere enough, the gods will hear them despite them not praying in the shrine," she retorted.

He smirked again before saying, "It can't be that bad."

She didn't say anything, only thrust her mock paper at him. His eyes scanned her grade and her mistakes.

Then he shook his head. "Yes, the worshipers can wait till tomorrow. Or pray at home."

She sunk her head down on the table, letting out a muffled wail. "I'm doooooomed!"

"Not necessarily," he said while flipping through her mock paper. "Actually, all you got are some basic concepts wrong. If you get them right, you should be able to pass math easily. Year One math isn't all that tough-"

Midori bolted up straight, and snapped to his directions, looking at him with sparkling eyes. "Senpai, since your math is good, you don't need to study right? You're free for the day, right?"

"Yes-"

She clasped his arm, looking at him pleadingly. "Senpai! Can you please help me with math? I just need to get my basic concepts right! Please senpai!"

Hayabusa didn't look convinced. He hesitated and sighed in resignation. "Fine, it's not like I have anything to do anyway. All the others already scurried home to study."

"Thank you Hayabusa-senpai! You're the best!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now, hand me your textbook." He took the book from her, grabbed a pencil, and pointed at the formula written. "You see here…"

- X -

A few hours later, Hayabusa flipped to the last page. "And finally…."

Midori looked at him in awe. "Senpai… you finished the entire syllabus in less than three hours… and I actually understood everything…! You're amazing!"

"Save your praises. Go redo some of your mock paper questions and see if you can get them right. If you get them right, then you really do understand what I've taught you." He yawned, stretching his arms backwards.

"Okay!" she proceeded to attempt a few questions.

Upon getting them right, to her utmost surprise and delight, she turned to Hayabusa in glee. He nodded, giving her a small smile.

"See, wasn't that hard, was it?" he yawned again.

"Thank you so much senpai! I wish there was some way for me to repay you…"

He took out his wallet and slid some coins over to her. "You can start by helping me get a can of coffee. Iced."

"Of course!"

She quickly left to get the iced coffee. By the time she got back to the library and was ready to pass Hayabusa his iced coffee, he found him sleeping, with his head on his arms across the table.

- X -

When Hayabusa awoke, his jacket was no longer on the table beside him – it was draped around his shoulders. He glanced to his left, and saw that the sun was already setting, dying the sky red. He looked again to his right, and no dark green-haired shrine maiden was to be found.

However, beside him he saw a can of iced coffee, a red Omamori good luck charm (the very same she lent him when he was about to fight Sakamoto), and a note pressed under the coffee.

'Senpai,' the note read. 'Thank you again for your help! You seemed very tired (no thanks to me; sorry for being such a tedious student to teach), so I decided to let you sleep longer! I hope you'll wake up before they lock the school, LOL!'

Hayabusa rolled his eyes as he read that line. A small smile creep its way onto his face. He continued reading.

'I know you don't need to study, but since I took up your time, take this charm! It'll bless and give you good luck for tomorrow! Have a good night, senpai.

- Midori'

- X -

The days passed and one day after school, Hayabusa felt his phone buzz his pocket. He took it out, and read his newest message received.

'Senpai! I passed math! And managed to get a half decent score! My math teacher was shocked! Thanks again! Next time if you come by the shrine, I'll treat you to tea!'

He smiled involuntarily as he read the message before a typing a reply back to Midori.

'Of course you'll pass. After all, I was your tutor. Who do you take me for?'

Her reply was just as quick.

'8823 senpai, of course ^_~'