Poor sensei

When we put Kamakura into the cardboard box, he tried touching it with his front paw. When he smoothed the ground three times, he purred contentedly as if to say, "Heh… good enough."

Now then, all we needed to do was to wait for Kawasaki Saki's appearance. The problem was that we didn't know when she would turn up. The length of Hiratsuka sensei's lectures depended on her whims. Trust me, firsthand knowledge here.

"Let's divide the duties," Yukinoshita proposed, taking charge. She made Totsuka lie in wait in front of the staffroom, while Yuigahama was stationed by the side of the bicycle parking area. Komachi, having volunteered to help, was on patrol. And I was ordered to carry the cardboard box around and run around. I was probably the most athletic one out of our group, including Totsuka, so it made sense.

I had nothing to do until Kawasaki Saki was spotted so I decided to try and find some answers. While I was on standby, I appeared to walk off to buy a drink from the nearby vending machine thus leaving my cat alone outside by a wall in a secluded place. While I was purchasing my drink, I send a quick text to Taishi-kun. After receiving a reply, I returned to my station.

"Meow." I heard Kamakura's familiar meowing.

"Meow." I heard a girl's unfamiliar meowing.

I checked my surroundings reflexively, but there was no other girl besides Yukinoshita in the vicinity.

It seemed like the animal therapy was also for her.

Which meant that the ice queen also had family problems.

One girl at a time, Hachiman. She has a thorny exoskeleton, do you really want to get involved?

Yes. For the same reason I helped Yuigahama, the same reason I was looking out for Komachi, the same reason I promised Taishi, the same reason I like hanging around Totsuka, hopefully for the same reason I was going to save Saki.

They were good, genuine people.

Was what I was hoping to find at university and later in life, already here? Was I already surrounded by people who were mature and that I liked to hang out with?

It had been ten minutes now, it was only because school had ended ages ago that there was no-one around to catch Yukinoshita in the act. I could hear her muttering things to my cat.

Things that she would never normally say or tell someone. She was only saying those things because she thought she was alone with a cute cat and decided to vent her problems to him.

Things I would have to think hard on later. Perhaps even mediate on. But for now, it was time to abort the animal therapy.

I called out to the girl whose back was turned to me.

"…what are you doing?" I asked, pretending to have just arrived.

"What are you talking about?" Yukinoshita answered innocently.

"Nothing, just you were talking to the cat just now." I know that she is clever enough to know that I know that she was talking to the cat. She doesn't know that I know about the confidential stuff she was talking about to the cat. It wasn't as dark as what that part of my mind had conjured about Saki but it was serious. Just like Yuigahama's.

Isolation, betrayal, inferiority, the list goes on.

Yukinoshita had issues.

Perhaps there was some I could help with. Only time would tell. But for now, Kawasaki Saki was my number one priority.

"More importantly, I'm quite certain I ordered you to be on standby, but it seems following a simple instruction is beyond your abilities. I took your level of incompetence into account, but honestly you have surpassed my calculations. I wonder how I can phrase my orders to make them simple enough for someone stupider than a grade schooler to understand."

Yukinoshita was fifty per cent colder than normal and her tone was ruthless. Her eyes were telling me that I was dead if I uttered another word.

Understandable, after all she was just vulnerable for awhile and now she was putting back on her amour. I expected that she would react with some extremely cruel words, but her speech wasn't that soul crushing. I could have come up with worse half asleep.

"Got it but we have to abort the plan. I just got a call from Taishi and it turns out Kawasaki has a cat allergy. So I don't reckon she'd pick the cat up even if we left it here."

She might if she was the kind person her brother told us about. Though there could be personal bias and if she did take the cat, she could be in unnecessary pain that would be counterproductive to the animal therapy.

"…huh. That's a spanner in the works," Yukinoshita said as she stroked Kamakura's head sadly in parting. It's a good thing my cat isn't black, Yukinoshita. It turns out that they have the tendency to have the ability of understanding and speaking human speak. Some can even shape shift! Mostly into a naked woman!

Still, I managed to find out more about Yukinoshita so it wasn't a complete waste of time and effort.

When I contacted the others to tell them that we'd given up, Yuigahama, Totsuka and Komachi returned.

"Onii-chan, you got a call from Kawasaki-kun?" Komachi asked.

"Er, yeah." A text actually but who cares. I then said, "Don't go giving phone numbers away to strangers. What if something dangerous happens? Be careful when you handle personal information."

"Hikigaya-kun's personal details aren't such a big deal," Yukinoshita teased me, but only half-jokingly for some reason.

"It's not for me, it's for Komachi. You hear me? Don't you give your number away lightly, okay? Especially to boys."

I thought I was coming on a bit strong and demanding but all Komachi did was give me a small smile and a nod.

Now that the animal therapy operation had failed, we (and by we, I mean they) had to come up with another plan. Already having a plan of my own, I looked to Yukinoshita. When I did, she looked at Komachi and me in turn and let out a soft sigh.

"…you get along well as siblings." She hesitated. "I'm somewhat jealous."

"Huh? Oh, people say that a lot when they're an only child. It's not such a great thing." I said pretending that I did not know that she had an older sister that she had just spoken about to my cat.

"No, I…" Yukinoshita trailed off, which was rare for her. Usually, she declared whatever was on her mind, even at the expense of hurting others. "No, never mind."

"Now then, what are we gonna do? We got to think of something." I said trying to get the gang back on track. I guess that would make me Fred from Scooby Doo! All I had to say to complete the act was 'we need to split up and search for clues!'

"Er, uh…" Totsuka raised his hand timidly. He looked at both Yukinoshita and Yuigahama with an uncertain look in his eyes, as if he wanted to contribute something but wasn't sure how to go about it.

Go ahead and say it, I thought. Even if no one else would accept him, I would! For example, I would even accept our friendship lasting a lifetime!

"Go ahead," said Yukinoshita. "I don't mind if you speak your mind. It could help us all out."

"Okay then… so um, how about you tell Hiratsuka-sensei about it? I think she might be too close to her parents to tell them her problems. But if she were talking to another adult, she might be able to confide her problems, maybe?"

That was actually a really good idea.

I may not have to take the burden of worrying about the worst. Oh, what a great call indeed. Kawasaki might not be able to talk to her parents because they were her parents. For example, I would have absolutely no desire to talk to my parents about porn or romance. That's why a third party was necessary. A reliable person with an abundance of life experience might be able to pitch in and help.

"Hiratsuka-sensei, you say…" There were bonus points for Totsuka for picking her. She was a kind and caring person, case point: forcing me into the Service club. She forced a student to do something he did not want to do because she had good intentions at heart.

Though those were what paved the road to hell. With her other personality traits, could you really call such her an adult? The only thing that was adult about her was her body.

Wow, what was wrong with me these days? The joke about the heat making me go into heat was just a joke. Was there a higher dose of hormones coursing through my body for some reason? I thought I was at the tail end of puberty!

"Compared to other teachers, Hiratsuka-sensei is very in touch with her students," Yukinoshita declared. "There is no better person for the job."

"I agree." My earlier thoughts about her other personality traits were dismissed. Just like Yukinoshita said, Hiratsuka-sensei really did work hard in guiding her students. She directed students who were wrapped up in their worries to the Service Club, and on a daily level she connected with the students. She could probably do what we needed of her since she was highly observant and all. Could, could she be the male version of the Great Teacher Onizuka? "I'll try contacting her."

I explained the gist of the Kawasaki Saki situation in my text message without my dark theories clouding the known 'facts'. Hiratsuka sensei's phone address, which I had absolutely no use or desire for, had come in handy for once.

"That's about it. I told her that we have had a tough case in the Service club and require her help. I have briefly explained everything she needs to know about Kawasaki Saki and her situation. She has agreed to hear us out."

After I closed off the messenger, we waited for five minutes.

We heard the stiff sound of her heels scratching against the floor, signalling Hiratsuka-sensei's appearance.

"Hikigaya, I understand the situation," she said with a serious face. "I'll hear out the details." She put out the cigarette she had been smoking on a portable ash tray.

I explained what we knew about Kawasaki Saki, again leaving out my dark thoughts, as well as what we had surmised. Hiratsuka-sensei listened silently until I finished, upon which she let out a short, terse sigh.

"The fact that a student of our school is working at a part-time job past midnight is a serious matter. We need to deal with this quickly before it escalates any further. I'll handle it." Hiratsuka-sensei cackled in a rather unprofessional way. "What are you looking at? I let Kawasaki go just before I came here. And I know a quicker way in getting here."

…what was this indescribable unease that come over me? Her entire manner reeked of schadenfreude.

Had I made a mistake? I wanted serious Sensei, like when One Punch Man gets serious. This situation is serious! Act like it, damn it!

As these thought were going on, Kawasaki Saki appeared at the entrance. She dragged her feet lazily and occasionally let out a wide yawn. She slung her schoolbag over her shoulder listlessly as if she didn't give a crap about anything. Her elbows were swinging back and forth idly.

My inner demon twitched at every sign that backed its twisted theories. I wrapped it in chain of logic, stating perhaps she was tired from being overworked and I was looking too much into her body language. Before the dark part of my mind could retort, Hiratsuka-sensei rolled into action.

"Hold it right there, Kawasaki," Hiratsuka-sensei called out authoritatively to her back. The sound of her voice shook the ground roughly. This was what I wanted to expect from serious sensei, thank you for not letting me down.

At that, Kawasaki turned around, her eyes narrowing half-way as if she was glaring. As she turned around, she stooped over in a smooth motion. My mouth dried while watching her move.

The group and I were just around the corner and could see everything that was happening through the windows. Their voices travelled down the hallway to us.

Hiratsuka-sensei was tall as well, but she was inferior to Kawasaki. Her long legs, covered loosely by her boots, kicked a small rock smartly.

"…you want something?" Kawasaki said belligerently in a husky "I don't give a shit" tone. The way she spoke so bluntly was scary. Yet so appealing. She wasn't the delinquent or yankee "I'll beat the shit outta you!"-type of scary. She was the older woman in a sleazy bar kind of scary. She had the kind of vibe of a person sitting at the corner of the counter, smoking and holding whisky in one hand.

Mature could be another word for it. Yet again, I could be reading too much into the situation.

On the other hand, Hiratsuka-sensei's entire body was also emitting a similar scary aura. She was scary the way a tired old man is when he helps himself to a bottle of beer as he's eating his fifth helping of soba at a Chinese cookery in front of the station in the sleazy part of town, yelling things like, "He's hopeless! What a shit pitcher!" at the relay broadcast of baseball.

Wait. What was the shitty example? Had my brain turned to mush after focusing on Kawasaki?

"Kawasaki, I hear you've been coming home late these days - that you've been coming back in the early hours of the morning. Just what are you doing and where?"

The moment I was waiting for. I held my breath.

"Did someone tell you that?"

"My client information is strictly confidential. Now answer my question," Hiratsuka sensei said in her take-no-shit tone.

Kawasaki sighed languidly. From the looks of it, she was ridiculing sensei. "Nothing much. Does it really matter where I go? Not like I'm getting in anyone's way."

Yes it damn well matters! People care about you, your family for starters!

"But you might in the future. You won't be a high school student forever. Don't you see there are people watching out for you? Like your parents and I," Hiratsuka sensei insisted.

But Kawasaki only looked at her with a bored expression. The kind of expression on wore on the inside when I was called to the teacher's workroom for the first time.

Not getting through, she tried a different way. Hiratsuka-sensei grabbed Kawasaki by the arm. "Have you ever considered how your parents are feeling?" she demanded seriously, clinging as if she would never let go.

Her touch was probably warm and tender. I wondered if her passionate feelings would melt Kawasaki's heart.

Unless her parents are the cause.

Stop talking!

"Sensei…" Kawasaki whispered, touching Hiratsuka-sensei's hand and looking straight into her eyes.

Then

"Like I know how my parents feel. And anyway, there's no way you could know since you've never been a parent either, sensei. Shouldn't you only say that stuff after you get married and have kids yourself?"

"Uuuuurk!"

Kawasaki had turned the tables completely. Hiratsuka-sensei lost her footing like a boxer hit by a sucker punch. She was receiving a considerable amount of damage. It seemed her feelings hadn't gotten across.

"Sensei, you should worry about your own future before you worry about mine. Like getting married and stuff."

Hiratsuka-sensei's body keeled over at the continued pummelling. Her knees were trembling. The impact reached her hips, her shoulders and all the way up to her voice box. She croaked, but no words came out. Her eyes were watering.

The callous Kawasaki paid no heed and disappeared into the bicycle parking area. She attacked Sensei at her weakest points and demolished her with a few short sentences with ease.

Be still, my beating heart.

We all looked at each other wordlessly, not knowing what to say. Yuigahama and Komachi gazed pointedly at the ground, while Totsuka muttered, "Poor sensei," to himself. Then Yukinoshita looked at me.

Why? Why was it up to me to do something? I thought, as I watched my teacher's pitiful state. Somebody! Get me a senzu bean!

"Er, uh… sensei?" I said, trying to think of comforting words.

Sensei turned around stiffly like she was a zombie. She sniffed. "I'm going home…" she said in a thin, trembling voice as she rubbed her eyes with the sides of her thumbs.

And then, without even waiting for my response, she began making her way unsteadily towards the car park.

"You tried your best." I said as I watched her lone figure stumbling in the distance. That is what normal people say to each other to try and cheer them up, right?

Someone marry her already, please.

In the mean time I discreetly moved toward where Kawasaki left. By the time I managed to get there she was nowhere in sight. I flipped open my phone and texted her younger brother to be on the lookout.

I had apologised to him when I asked him to stay home and skip cram school. I also asked him to discreetly shadow his sister to the point where he knew if she was going downtown or central business district and then report back to me.

I had spent the entire night researching all the places that have Angel in their name and excluded all the ones that did not stay open during the late hours of the evening.

Unless she only works in the evening at the place and then has a second job...

'Entertaining'.

Ignore it, it will go away.

While the sun was slowly rising over the horizon, I checked up on the laws regarding under age working and make a note of all the points that could be important.

Thank God for Coffee MAX otherwise people might have noticed that I did not sleep at all last night.

As if I could sleep.