Chapter 188:

Ace dealt with the various questions from his classmates for about ten minutes, before another teacher came to the classroom, a middle-aged woman, dressed formally in a black pantsuit. As soon as she crossed the door, everyone quieted down, and returned to their seats.

"Good morning to you all,", she noticed Ace, paused for a few seconds, and continued, "For those that do not know me, my name is Mrs Onawa. I teach Advanced and regular Mathematics.

Ace nodded, and introduced himself as well, "Good morning ma'am, my name is Ace, pleased to meet you.", he said these words in English, just like she had, and she nodded, smiling slightly.

"Good, now that introductions have been made, we shall continue with what we were working on last time.", everyone nodded, and opened their textbooks, while she looked at Ace, and said, "If you need any help, do not hesitate to ask either me or one of your classmates, I am sure they would be more than glad to offer any assistance required.", Ace nodded and thanked her, before opening his own textbook, one of a pack given to him by his homeroom teacher.

As he observed what it was they were learning, he kept calm, it was stuff he already knew, and so he would have a peaceful lesson, something Mrs Onawa noticed as well, but she made no comment.

***

The class passed by quietly, he just sat there and did his work, the teacher did not ask him any questions, but she did ask him to meet her at the end of the class. They had a double period, which meant that they would have a break once the lesson ended. As the bell rang, some students stayed in their seats, whilst some left the classroom. Ace went up to the teacher, and she asked him to follow her.

She took him to what appeared to be her office, a clean, spacious room, with an opulent office desk. She sat down, and motioned for him to do so as well.

"Firstly, I want to reintroduce myself, I am Mrs Onawa, and teach Mathematics,", Ace nodded and smiled, "Now, from what I understand, your Mathematics does not really need work, therefore, I wanted to offer you a few choices.", she paused and stared at him, wanting to see how he would react.

"One, I will allow you to skip my classes, and work on your Japanese or Literature skills, I will talk to teachers, and as long as you're able to pass a weekly mini-test, there will be no problem with my lessons. Two, you can take the lessons as you are, and just do your own thing. Or three,", she stopped, and looked at him, as if she was getting ready to something that would sap her strength, "I will sign you up for advanced Mathematics, there, I will push you to learn as much as possible, and I assure you, if you excel, there will be no university that will close their doors to you.", after a brief pause, "Not that it would be a problem - but still, this way, you would be able to get in by your own merits, which most certainly feel much better."

Ace stared at her, understanding where she was coming from. It seemed that while she knew that he spoke Japanese, she believed certain subjects, which were more culturally-oriented, were going to be a struggle for him. He decided to ignore her concerns for his studies, and just respond with the answer she was most certainly looking for. "Ok, that's fine, I may as well join your advanced Mathematics classes, since I have nothing better to do."

She stared at him, evaluating his seriousness, and then nodded, "Fine, but if your grades slip, or I do not see a clear improvement, I remain in power to remove you from the course."

"Of course, no problem.", Ace said, before finishing up the meeting, and going to his own classroom, since it was almost time for his next lesson.

***

He walked through the hallways at a brisk pace, but took his time to observe the people that were standing around, and/or looking at him. It was an uncomfortable feeling, but the truth was that he had gotten used to it. At the end of the day, it was on him, and he knew that.

He entered the classroom with a few minutes to spare, and sat down next to his new friend, Boten.

"So, what was it she wanted to ask you?", he inquired, clearly curious. At that, a few other people perked up as well, and stared silently as Ace formulated an appropriate answer to his question.

"Well… She wanted to ask me as to whether I was interested in joining her Advanced class.", Ace clearly saw that they knew something he did not, since they all winced.

"Ouch, I assume you joined?", a girl asked, and Ace nodded, another boy sighed, "Before you ask, just know that she is, uhh…", "Extreme.", Boten said, filling in, the boy nodded, "Yes, that is the word, just take it easy, and if for whatever reason it is too much, just tell her, and she will move you from the course, no hard feelings."

He clearly wanted to ease Ace's worries - not that he had any, he knew his capacity, and had an idea of what it was they did in that class, due to the number of worksheets and tests he saw neatly piled on her office.

"Of course, I already knew this, but I think it should be alright.", one of the girls shrugged, "Well, that's on you.", and then, flashing him a smile, "I am sure you will do alright anyways."

"Thanks.", Ace responded with a smile of his own.

***

"Good morning to you all, I will be your teacher for Ancient Literature. I expect great things from all of you, and I very much hope you do not let me down.", she stared them all down, and it seemed like she was looking into each and every one of their souls.

And like that, class had begun.

***

From the get-go, Ace could tell that this teacher, Miss Kano, knew her stuff. She began with a short introduction as to how they would be doing things, and Ace had to agree with her methods. For starters, she explained that they would finish covering the period they had already started. Since their first year at the school, they had begun going over since the last recorded literary pieces, going over them in chronological order, so as to explore and evaluate the evolution of Japanese Literature over the ages. In this last year, they would finish up, going over some more contemporary pieces.

She went into some slight detail on each piece they would study, and informed them that it would be in their best interests to begin their reading and annotation on each one.

Ace had already done so some time ago, so he was not exactly worried, he knew all he needed to know, and yet, in some weird, curious way, he looked forward to her lessons.