My Teacher is a Tanuki

章二十一 Twenty One

I guess that this is the last season of my story. I can certainly say that my life wasn't a bad one by these standards; in fact, I was a very lucky person. I had two friends, a job, loving parents, a tanuki-sensei, and the girl whom I shared great affection for loved my writing work, and had loved my gift for her at well. What more could I have asked for at this moment? Everything was going very well for me; I guess too well some might say. As with all things that are good, there was also evil in this world, and this season I was going to encounter some of it whether I had been planning to or not.

The snow was just beginning to lazily fall from the sky, covering the leaf-littered ground and everything else in a dusty white covering. Walking to school in the morning was frigid, I could see my breath forming from my nostrils as I breathed, and the chill air froze the exposed skin on my face. Soon everything would be freezing and buried underneath a fine layer of snow.

The identity of the mysterious "Mr. Zero" was still just that; a mystery. His writings were still highly popular though. Eventually, Morinzawa High school will learn Mr. Zero's identity, but the first person I was going to let know was going to be Hiyori Asada. Over the course of the fall season, I had been leaving her small gifts in secret; some flowers, some notes. From watching her, I could tell that she really wanted to know the identity of the one who was leaving them for her – and I had no doubt in my mind that she had already made the connection between the writing style of the notes and the writing style of the high school newspaper entries. I had the exact plans in my head of how I was going to tell her. First, I would leave a note asking her to meet me behind the school at the tree I had spent many an hour up in its branches writing. It was a very special place to me, so I thought that it was only fitting that I confessed my feelings to Hiyori there. I would then wait for her to come while I waited behind the tree, and then I would reveal myself and hopefully be able to tell her exactly how I felt without seizing up in fear like the last time I had tried to talk to her. But after all the training I had done with Ponchi and the gifts and notes I had left for Hiyori who had obviously loved them, I think I would be able to actually talk to her without a problem. This was going to be, after all, the last chance I had.

Because of the cold and the snow taiku activities were done inside the gym, excluding certain outdoor activities that were normally done outside of course. It was when today's school session had come to an end that Makoto came up to me outside with an uncomfortable expression on his face as he rubs his arms underneath his long, black, English jacket.

"Brrr! It's so cold outside!" He says, breathing out large puffs of warm air from his mouth as he spoke. "I would much rather be home playing Metal Gear Solid V and doing a jikkyou-purei video at home than be out in this bloody weather...!" He says the last part in his British English disgustedly.

"But the snow is so beautiful." I hear Aki say as she came walking up behind us, surprising us both as we had not even noticed her walking up to us. "Besides, I hear England gets about this cold too, so the winters should be no different to you Makoto."

"I never liked winters in England either..." Makoto says coldly with an annoyed frown on his face.

"But wintertime means snow sculptures, snowball fights, sledding, ice skating, and winter festivals, not to mention the Christmas and the welcoming of the New Year." Aki said excitedly, running ahead and spinning around a few times, her warm, white coat flaring out a little and her red scarf following along behind her like a Kodomo no Hi kite.

"Mmm... that Christmas Kentucky Fried Chicken is pretty good..." Makoto said as he thought about the greasy Japanese Christmas dinner staple.

"But that's not even the best part!" Aki said eagerly, ceasing in her spinning to face both me and Makoto head on with a broad smile. "We'll be spending this New Year together!"