Out of the Ordinary by Eruanna17

Chapter 12: Deliberate Defiance

Chapter Twelve! The Finale! (But not the end! I'm going to cover the Gokusen Special, as well as my own version for how Shin deals with his feelings for Yankumi. Yay!)

Such an emotional chapter. Anyways, the only note today is about Kick the Can. It's a combination of Tag, Hide and Seek, and Capture the Flag. One person closes their eyes and counts while the can is kicked and everyone else runs and hides. The person who is 'it' has to find and guard the can from everyone else. All the other people try to find and steal the can without getting tagged by 'it'. If they do get tagged, they're out until someone successfully steals the can and starts a new game.

Well, read, enjoy, and please review! Let me know what your favorite (or least favorite) part is, and what you're looking forward to!

The day that changed everything started innocuously enough.

There were still a few minutes until homeroom started, and Shin was napping at his desk. If Yankumi practiced her speech for the upcoming symposium on Saturday one more time, he decided, he was heading to the roof for the rest of the day. He knew it was exciting for her, but high school boys only had limited interest in these things.

With his eyes closed, he could hear the sounds of his classmates talking, the screech of moving desks, the impact of a ball being tossed around, and rapidly approaching footsteps. He lifted his head from his arm to see who was running in, and why they wanted to reach 3-D so fast. Maybe something interesting happened, he thought.

"Bad news! Bad news! Really, really bad news!" Takeda shouted as he skidded into the classroom. The rest of the students looked up as he shoved the magazine towards Uchi, then stood panting.

"What's going on?" Uchi asked, staring at the cover of the latest issue of Wednesday Weekly.

"Page…thirteen!" Takeda gasped as he tried to catch his breath. Frowning, Uchi flipped through the pages as the rest of the boys gathered around. When page thirteen finally came into view, there was a round of wide eyes, surprised gasps, and shocked curses. Shin felt his stomach drop to the floor.

It was a full two page picture of Yankumi in her full on battle mode, taken right after she backhanded a gang member with a pipe. "Violence in front of a student!" The tagline read. "Big rough-up with thugs!" The column on the right declared, "Fireball teacher is the 4th generation head of a yakuza family!"

She's not the 4th head, she's the granddaughter of the 3rd generation head, Shin thought in a daze, then shook his head to clear it. That detail didn't matter. Her secret was out.

"What the hell?" Uchi asked as he stared at the magazine.

Everyone knew now. Shin glanced up as he realized what kind of hell she was going to catch for this.

"Yankumi," he breathed, and had a sudden desire to try and shield her from all the pain this would cause.

"That's… that's one of the guys who came after me," Kuma said slowly, pointing at the man in the photo. "This was from when my dad…" He couldn't finish.

"Is this true?" Noda asked, glancing around. Almost as if by instinct, his eyes darted at Shin. For a moment, Shin froze, praying his face didn't give him away. Noda must have seen something however, because he turned towards Shin and opened his mouth to ask another question.