Crash Courses

A few hours later, the end of the day came. Benjiro slid out of his seat and began wandering down to the library. He didn't get far down the hallway before he was stopped by a small group of the Domon Battalion. They had mostly left him be after hearing about his brother, but there were a few outliers.

"Where do you think you're going, worm?"

He wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not, that the guy who hit him while his arms were being held was the one confronting him.

"I'm g-going to the l-library-"

"Oh, he's going to the library", he interrupted, "And what are you going to do there? Make some weak attempt to come close to the goddess's brain power?"

Before, Benjiro had been afraid, mostly because of the numbers, but now he just found the Domon Battalion irritating.

He simply responded, "No", and continued walking down the hallway.

The bigger guy stepped in front of him, "Don't think you can just walk away like that. What's in the library that you think you can just ignore us like that."

Benjiro stopped and sighed, "I h-have to go an tutor s-someone."

The boxer guy looked at him condescendingly, "Oh, and who's the poor bastard that's so stupid they have to have you teach them?" he goaded.

Benjiro's lips made a thin line for a moment, "A g-girl named D-Daitan Haurok-ka."

The boxer guy looked surprised, but then adopted an evil smirk, "Oh, that is just perfect." He stepped aside and waved his hand like a butler, "Go right on ahead, then. You don't want to keep your eager student waiting."

Benjiro lingered past the guy for a moment. He ambled down the stairs like usual.

"Come on, you're going to have to go faster than that", Boxer guy called down, "You're going to be late for your session."

He continued making his way towards the library, but he was so weirded out that he wasn't sure what to do.

'That guy hates me because I'm still competing against Hiromi, which is stupid enough', he compared, 'But when I tell him I'm a tutor, he not only lets me go, but also tells me that I should get there as quick as I can.'

He paused and let his confusion take hold for a moment. Benjiro tried coming up with a clue for why the boxer guy was acting like that, but he couldn't come up with a reason that made sense. Throwing his hands up in the air, he completed his walk to the library. He wandered among the bookshelves looking for his "pupil". Pausing a few times to look at the titles, he wondered if he should check one out. Meandering past the classics, he saw ones written by the old masters. Books by Plato, Dante and a whole other bunch of names that ultimately meant nothing to him.

Pulling a thick one off the shelf, 'Voyna i mir. War and Peace. Sheesh, even if this were in a language I could understand, that's too much reading. Even for me.'

As he put the book back on the shelf, he could see Haruoka through the space. His stomach gave an obligatory lurch as he saw her. She was sitting with her books and assorted supplies laid out and her head resting on her chin. Glancing up, she saw his face through the small space. Hastily he tried to put the book back, but the jig was up, "I can see you. Get over here and sit down", she ordered.

Shuffling over, he hesitantly sat down. Not even glancing up, "I've already started. Just sit back, shut up and let me do my thing."

Red anger bubbled up in Benjiro's stomach, but he swallowed his pride, 'Just remember. This is only for a month. I ignore her, she ignores me and we'll both get what we want.'

He slowly pulled a chair and sat at the very end of the table. He pulled his own homework out and plugged his ears in. He needed some energy, and he silently mouthed the words "We're gonna take you to a bright new world." Scribbling out answers to the beat was a little difficult, but it helped to block out the rest of the world for a few precious minutes. With a few of the equations, while he just prayed were right, he drummed his fingers and tapped his pencil to the rhythm until he arrived at the closest right answer he could manage.

'This extra credit is going to save my life.'

While Benjiro was absorbed in his music and homework, back in the real world, Daitan was growing impatient. She shook her head and stared hard at the textbook and worksheet in front of her. There were a lot of new words to learn and the task looked daunting. Learning by reading things out of a book had never exactly appealed to her, but this was the only option she was willing to consider. Some of the words had pictures in the margin, but they were only of minor help. Rubbing her eyes after looking at the vocab sheet, she wondered if she was ever going to be able to get back onto the soccer team.

But the thing that annoyed her the most wasn't just the threat of not getting back to sports, but also, him. She still couldn't believe the principal had thought such a creep could teach her anything. Not only was his appearance messy, with hair that obscured his eyes, a uniform that looked like it hadn't been ironed in a while. Between the light humming, the drumming and the tapping she was becoming increasingly annoyed. And the fact that he was so far into his own little world that he didn't even seem to consider the fact that there were other people that might want some silence. Especially when they were in the school library.

'He looks like he's drunk or something.'

Picking up an eraser, she chucked it at the unsuspecting boy, hitting him square in the eye. Benjiro let out a sharp yelp and was bent over holding his eye. After his eye was done stinging he picked up the eraser. After blinking the tears from his reddened eyes, looking over he saw Haruoka staring at him with an annoyed expression.

"Do you always make so much noise when people are trying to work or are you just trying to trip me up?"

Blinking a few more times, "Wh-what are you t-talking about? I'm j-just minding m-my own b-business l-like you said."

"Yes and I'm also trying to concentrate", she said sharply, "Which isn't easy when you keep making noises. You're not even keeping proper timing anyway."

Looking her in the eyes, he popped his earbuds back in and just sat silently watching her.

"And don't look at-"

She kind of looked like she was mouthing the words to the song, which amused him. Noticing that he wasn't even listening infuriated Daitan, but he seemed to be remaining perfectly silent, so with nothing more to heckle him about, she begrudgingly went back to her book and worksheets. When he saw her head was bent down, Benjiro shut off his music and continued staring at her. Glancing up from her book every now and then, she would glare at him whenever she saw that not only was he still staring, but he had evidently not even moved a muscle.

Her method of studying, from what Benjiro could tell, was abysmal. Judging from her silent recitation and occasional sounding out, she couldn't pronounce half the words. Hearing her recite the definitions was even more painful. Not only would she butcher the pronunciation, but she would also robotically recite the definition and then seemingly forget what she just read fifteen seconds later. These little memory lapses were punctuated by the occasional burst of frustration. Which consisted of forcefully setting the book down, smacking her forehead until it was pink, some cursing and overly intent staring at the pages. It took every ounce of concentration Benjiro had to keep his face neutral. Any less and he would've made a face as if someone had popped the world's sourest candy into his mouth.

Checking his phone, he saw that an hour and a half had passed already. He rapidly blinked a few times to ensure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. Part of him felt a rush of relief, but another part of him felt... unsatisfied. Not needing to guess where the second emotion was originating, he turned his gaze back to Haruoka who was continuing to butcher her study of the English language. Unable to stand it anymore, "Y-You're saying it w-wrong."

Daitan raised a piercing gaze at the boy who had for the most part, listened to her. He had seemed like every other spineless coward she encountered, so she was equal parts surprised he had even spoken at all and angry that he had interrupted her runaway train of thought.

"I didn't ask for your input you jibbering dumbass."

Benjiro pursed his lips, but tried to keep his voice level, "R-Regardl-less, y-you aren't pron-ncouning the w-words right. And y-you seem to h-have trouble w-with m-"

Ignoring his observation, "Listen to me you retarded little twig, I told you I don't want your help. So if you don't feel like getting hurt, I suggest go back to listening to whatever you've got on that phone."

Benjiro's face grew hot once more. Taking a deep breath and lacing his fingers together, "Y-you d-don't underst-stand. I'm n-not critic-cizing you. It's j-just th-that you're-"

Cutting him off again, "I could just refuse to come here and sink your chances of getting that extra credit you seem to have so much riding on right now."

Benjiro glared at her, but an idea came to him. It wasn't a nice one, but it was better than just sitting there.

"Y-You could, y-you defin-nitely could d-do that. But t-tell me, what h-happens to y-your ch-chances of g-getting b-back to the s-soccer team."

"What are you saying?"

"Wh-What I'm s-saying is: what k-kind of an example w-would you b-be setting th-those t-teammates of yours wh-when their ace is t-too much of a headst-strong fool to p-properly learn English? Y-you could f-fail the class and g-get barred from pl-playing and l-lead them t-to a losing s-season. C-Cause if th-that's what y-you're trying to d-do, exc-cellent work."

Abruptly standing up, she approached his chair. Her face sat rock still, but in her eyes was enough acid to melt iron, "Nobody talks to me like that. Especially not a perverted little b*tch like you."