Our Teacher is a Yakuza Princess

Chapter 7

He walked towards her, obviously debating what he was going to say. When he reached her, he examined the floor very carefully and said "I'm sorry," in the softest tone possible.

Shin watched her reaction. She pursed her lips and scrunched up her face as if she couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. She settled on dropping all her books and attacking Noda's hair with a beaming smile.

"Alright!" was all she managed to get out as she kept ruffling his hair in a mixture of affection, pride, and happiness.

As he tried unsuccessfully to swat her hand away and hide his grin, cheers broke out. Noda made his way to his desk, pausing and bowing on the way. Shin's face also had a small grin, as the Noda he knew was back, the weird teacher he had was happy, and everyone was ready to help.

"Alright, everybody, let's start the lesson!" She announced happily. "We'll work hard! Oh! Come on, let's all do it! Oh! That's too soft! Oh! One more time! OH!"

The week that followed frightened and confused most everyone who knew anything about 3-D. They basically lived with their English workbooks and handouts, studied during lunch and breaks, used walls for practice rather than graffiti, and started using English outside of class.

Shin still had to correct her handouts, (like pointing out that 'Make miracle!' didn't make any sense without an article like 'a'. Or that 'Dream comes true!' needed to be 'Dreams come true!' to impart the correct sentiment) and that somehow led to him being the main consultant for any difficult concepts. He was also pleased to notice that no one studied as hard or long as Noda, who didn't always get the right answers, but kept trying nonetheless.

Adults started to notice their efforts too, and there was great rejoicing when the nurse brought in special onigiri as a study snack. The fact that Yankumi immediately snagged three for herself did not escape Shin's notice. Nor did the fact that 3-D had never been so unified and excited for anything, let alone studying, until she came along; so he let her have his share.

And before they knew it, a week had passed, and the Head Teacher strode in to their classroom with their midterms and a smug expression.

As they passed the tests out, Yankumi gave them one last piece of advice. "Listen carefully. Don't be nervous. Stay calm while answering the questions and you'll get a good score."

I believe in you.

She may not have said it out loud, but they heard it all the same.

There had never been such an air of concentration in the classroom ever before. All too soon, time was up, and the tests were handed in. But not before everyone had written notes to Shizuka-chan, so that she would know why they had studied so hard.

And so, they all waited with great trepidation as Shizuka-chan started handing out their tests. For many of them, this was the first test they had actually studied for, and the first score that they actually cared about. As each score was announced, and they continued to be more than 30 points, the atmosphere became almost like a party. Many earned the highest score they had ever gotten in school. But the most satisfying was watching Head Teacher's face grow more and more constipated.

But, as they heard Kuma's score of 29 points, hearts and faces fell. The Head Teacher proclaimed Fujiyama-sensei as failing the condition, and thus officially let go. As the sense of injustice grew, protests broke out, and Noda admitted he was the one who sent the photo in. He begged Head Teacher to let her stay, and deeply apologized to Fujiyama-sensei.

He found his way, Shin observed. As Yankumi stood up for Noda, for Fujiyama, when she argued passionately that those who want to start a new beginning should be given a second chance, Shin couldn't help but feel the personal meaning she put into those words.

Yankumi turned to Fujiyama-sensei, and asked if this is how she wanted it all to end.

"I... I never had high expectations for my job as a teacher. But today was the first time I really wanted to continue teaching." Shizuka-chan explained, near tears. "I... I really want to continue!"

But all Shin could think of was that Yankumi had the opposite problem. That she always had high expectations of being a teacher, of the kids in her class, of their friendships and actions. That Yankumi always wanted to continue teaching.

"Yes, but," the Head Teacher smirked, "a promise is a promise, right?"

And as Shin wondered if Yankumi was going to punch the Head Teacher, and if he should stop her or not (probably not), everyone heard an amazing sound.

"Ummm," the Principal (when did he get here?) was staring at Kuma's test. "For question four, couldn't choice one or two be correct?"

Everyone crowded around. "That's right," Fujiyama affirmed. "Head Teacher made a mistake with the answer key."

"That means Kuma scored two more points." Yankumi said aloud, then realized, "That makes 31 points!"

"Way to go, Kuma!" The whole class shouted, and Shin smiled broadly as his classmates saw their hard work pay off. The Head Teacher ran out (probably to go cry somewhere), and cheers erupted from everyone in the room as they all knew that Fujiyama-sensei could stay. Another happy ending.

Thanks to her.

Shin shook the thought off. It was probably her fault for getting them into this '30 points or higher' mess. But still. We couldn't have pulled this off on our own.

His friends, still feeling the rush of victory, charged past him as soon as school was out, running like mad men and shouting Shizuka-chan's name the whole way. He shook his head at them and continued at a much more reasonable pace. As he turned the corner to head out the gate, he saw Noda and everyone else chanting something about "80 points means a date!" going one way, and heard girlish voices squeaking "Shinohara-saaannnn!" heading the other.

So noisy, Shin sighed. Boyish shouts and girlish squeals in front, plus some really annoying melody coming from the bushes.

Wait, the bushes?

Shin bent down and saw a small pink phone, ringing insistently.

"Whose is this?" He muttered to himself, then opened it. At least the person calling could tell him who it belonged to.

"Hello, Ojou? Ojou? It's Tetsu. Ojou?" He looked at the phone in confusion. Who here was important enough to have grown men referring to her as 'princess ' instead of her name?

Ah, well. I won't know until I ask, Shin shrugged, then put the phone back up to his ear. How bad can it be?

Note: Ojou literally means princess