Chapter 23: Financial Constraints

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Dinner at the Kinoya residence was normally a lively occasion, with whoever was in charge of cooking telling everyone else why he or she had chosen the menu and where each ingredients in the dishes were grown in or bought from. This one particular dinner, however, was somber. Instead of delighting everyone with stories of where the tofu in the miso soup was produced or where the hens who laid the eggs for rolled omelets lived in, Lee began the dinner by leading the family in reciting a lengthy prayer of gratitude—lengthier than the usual "we humbly accept the great sacrifices it took to bring healthy foods to our table" prayer Kenta and Akira were accustomed to recite before a meal. Lee's prayer began with thanking Kami-sama for looking after the family year after year and ended with a plea for forgiveness for not being grateful enough. The middle of the prayer was a recitation of how even the smallest of blessings could be taken away in the blink of an eye should Kami-sama ever deemed the recipient no longer worthy of being blessed and how no person can truly gauge their worthiness in the eyes of Kami-sama.

"You're about to break some bad news, aren't you?" Akira finally blurted out once her dad finished praying. "Are you dying too? How long have you held back from telling us?"

"He's the very picture of health," Chiharu interrupted. "But you're right that he has bad news to share. It concerns you and your cousin too, so listen close, and please know that just like we can't prevent a cherry blossom petal from falling when the time has come, we're powerless against fate. What we can do is to move on and do the best with the cards we are dealt."

"Similarly to how cherry blossoms can't stay on cherry trees forever, the heavy hands of time are sometimes ticking too fast for our liking," Lee said in acknowledgement of his wife's use of imageries, "and so is our wealth. It saddens me that there's no gentler way to tell you this but after paying for Chiharu-san's latest medical bills last month and calculating how much is left in our savings, it occurred to me that there might not be enough money to send two kids to Blue Orchid, even after taking into account how much Aikawa and Shiori earn annually. What I'm saying is that if you still have your hearts set on Blue Orchid you unfortunately can't rely on us."

"How much exactly is still left in our family's savings?" Akira asked point blank. "When you said you can't afford sending two kids to the university, what you really meant was that you can't afford the costs of the full four year of our undergraduate education, right? But surely you can pay for the first year?" she pried further. "Otou-san, how broke are we talking about here?"

"Not even the costs of one year at the university is affordable for us at this point," Lee said while cradling his head in his hands. "I'm very sorry that I have to ask you to consider cheaper universities. I still want you and your cousin to get the best education we can afford, but at least for now it means staying on our own planet instead of pursuing a degree on a foreign planet."

"You said you can't send two kids," Akira repeated, "but you can send one kid, can't you?"

Before any of the adults could respond, Kenta slammed his teacup hard on the table.

"Don't say it," he glared at Akira. "Don't say that you'll give up your dream of becoming an interplanetary student just because you think I'm more deserving to be one. I only want to go to another planet if you get to go with me, understand? If you don't go, I don't go."

"But your boyfriend, I thought y—" her protesting was met with another glare from Kenta.

"You know how there is an old saying back on Earth, sisters before misters? Akira, you're the closest thing I have to a sister. Romantic relationships can end in a flash, but family is forever."

"Are you saying that you see no future for you and Johan?"

"No, you misunderstand. What I'm saying is that no romantic relationship is worth sacrificing my cousin's happiness for. Besides, if Johan and I are meant to be then distance won't deter us."

"Hey, hey, calm down, you guys!" Aikawa put on hand on Akira's shoulder and another hand on Kenta's. "Why are you jumping the gun here? If we think rationally, I'm sure we can find a middle path in which nobody has to sacrifice things that are important to them."

"Aikawa-san is right. Let's cool our heads," Shiori quickly added. "Even if our family has no money for sending you two to Blue Orchid there can still be myriad of other ways to get money. For example, Kenta, remember how in middle school you won seventh place for competing in a spelling bee against a group of two hundred and fifty students from all over Indigo Inferno and the money was enough to buy you five year's worth of subscription to your favorite gardening magazines? Surely there are many awards of that prestige for high schoolers."

"Maybe there is a spelling bee contest but instead of spelling English words you have to spell the scientific names of plants," Aikawa nudged his son. "Let's see if that's hard. What is the scientific name for sugar maple?"

"Acer saccharum," Kenta answered without missing a beat.

"What about red maple?"

"Acer rubrum."

"And for sunflower?"

"Helianthus."

"And for our planet's namesake?"

"Manoao colensoi."

"And for black elms?"

"Ulmus glabra nigra."

"See?" Aikawa clasped his hand. "You can totally win another spelling bee if you want. Of course, it doesn't have to be a spelling bee. You're also good at baking, and writing haiku, and you're a natural at playing drum because you're used to feeling vibrations from loud music..."

"I'm certainly going to look for something Akira can also participate in," Kenta answered with a more cheerful tone. "Other than biology and arts, what subjects are you confident in?"

"I'm kind of jacks of all trades and master of none," the girl tugged at her ponytails. "But I'd say I'm pretty decent at mathematics. I can graph exponential and logarithmic functions accurately enough. With some brushing up, I can also do trigonometric inequalities and inverses."

"If you want to join some mathematics-based competitions," Lee chimed in, "then perhaps it would bode well for you to look up Mathlympics. Last year there was an interplanetary one for university students in White Banyan and Red Sycamore. I've heard some speculations that this year the organizers might make a version just for high school juniors and seniors."

"How competitive is it?" Akira perked up. "Like, how many institutions are usually competing in a preliminary and how many students can there be in one institution's team?"

"Let me check last year's rule real quick," Lee scrolled down a page on his phone. "Alright, I got the data. Last year, there were 30 institutions from each planet competing in the preliminary. That's 60 institutions in total. Each institutions send anywhere from a pair of students to a maximum of four students as representatives. Only 15 best-performing institutions can make it to the semi-final and then only 5 can go the final elimination round. Very cut-throat, huh? But you and Kenta have nothing to lose. Even if your high school doesn't make it to the final, I've heard rumors that being chosen to represent your school as Mathlympics mathletes alone might be enough to make universities admission officers fight to have you matriculate at their university."

"It is worth trying," Shiori smiled encouragingly. "You never know until you try."

"That settles it then," Kenta nodded toward Akira. "Tomorrow we can ask Ms. Smith if she's interested in signing our school up. Oh, by the way Uncle Lee, is there a rule against two schools from the same region joining forces? For example, can Mizunotori Deaf High and Hinotori High become one team? Or is that grounds for disqualification?"

"I don't remember any two institutions fusing as one last year but as far as I'm aware there's nothing in the guidebooks that explicitly forbids such practice," Lee continued scrolling down his phone, "so if we are going with technicalities then yes, school fusions are permissible."

"Hear that, Akira?" Kenta fist-bumped his cousin. "Let's round up the gang."

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