The First Class

Jayr POV - Real World, Earth, Japan, Tokyo - 2001

After the usual morning routine, I left V-mon, Wormmon, and Patamon in my Soulbound Territory to play and pass time with Bidi and the Nymphs, and then, I drove my bike to the Yodobashi Elementary School where I'll be spending most of the morning knowing my students, introducing myself and what they are going to learn a few times, and then try to pull off a fun and interesting class.

Once I arrive at my destination at 6.45 AM, I calmly park my bike at the parking space reserved for the school staff, and then, I head toward the main building with my helmet in hand, this time, I don't encounter anyone on my way to the building and so, I walk inside the building without stopping, greeting the occasional janitors, that are going through one last check of the status of the various classrooms before the school opens to the students, and head toward the Teachers' Lounge. 

The Teachers' Lounge, is a medium/large open office entered from a hallway with sliding doors at both ends, it has high ceilings with demountable partition walls with window transoms, which gives a light and open feeling.

It is similar to a lot of open-layout offices in Japan, with a rectangular configuration with desks around a perimeter with an open center.

The Vice Principal usually sits at the front of the rectangle and the teachers are arranged by either grade or seniority. 

The Teachers' Louge has a wall of cabinets, sinks, office equipment, and other things like copiers, blackboards, and everything else needed.

The principal has his own office adjacent to the Teachers' Lounge, with a single door and couch and tables, of course, at the moment it is empty as the principal will very likely arrive just a bit before the students.

It is usually always buzzing with activity, as the Teachers' Lounge is the heart of the school, but as I step inside what greets me is a dimly-lit, beige-brown landscape populated with a few fellow tracksuit-clad and business suit-clad teachers, piles of recycled paper and broken stationery, dusty chalkboards with a whole bunch of kanji on them, and your cheap canned coffee lying in the wrong trash bin.

This is the place where the various teachers take refuge and recover from the chaos and stress caused by the hyper-active kids, and of course, it is also the place where they prepare for their classes, write their reports, listen to the meetings and speeches of the vice-principal or even the principal, and of course, the dreadful meetings with the people of the PTA (Parent Teacher Association).

Once I step inside, I politely greet the few teachers that are already present, among which there is Toshiaki Mori, a plain-looking young man with an oval face, short black hair, and black eyes, he wears a navy blue tracksuit and a pair of brown glasses. 

(Image Here - Toshiaki Mori)

He is the homeroom teacher of Class 5-1, one of the classes I'm going to teach today, furthermore, he has an enormous crush on Asanuma Nami, but unfortunately, it is a one-sided one, as Nami is mostly annoyed by his constant advances, which is quite a shame as he is a pretty good and honest person. 

He is the teacher who won the lottery thanks to my godly intervention.

Still, despite that, he only used the money he won to take care of his parents and fix a couple of problems.

Then he put what remained in his savings, and even gave up on the year-long trip around the world because it would have made things more difficult for the school, especially once he learned about the arrest of his colleague Ainara Hisoka. 

After greeting everyone, I sit on the comfy chair in front of my assigned desk and start to go over and prepare for today's classes, luckily today I only have two classes. 

I'm especially lucky since as an elementary school teacher who teaches English, I only have a minimum of two to three and a maximum of five classes a day, which is quite a low number compared to my colleagues, even more so because I only have to teach to the 5th graders, who will learn about English for the first time, and the 6th graders, who already learned something the previous year and this year they are preparing for Middle School.

The reason for that is that different from Japanese middle schools, where each subject is taught by a different teacher who specializes in that subject, in Japanese elementary schools, the homeroom teacher teaches most subjects, however, there is a plan to begin phasing in the middle schools' "subject teacher system" for 5th and 6th graders in elementary school, to help the kids in making the jump from elementary and middle school a lot more smoother.

I continue to prepare all the materials needed for my classes while I continue to further refine my overall plan, 'Today, I only have to teach the 5th graders, so after the introduction, I will briefly explain to them the bare basic, meaning the Alphabet and a few very simple words and greetings, and then, I will spend the rest of class teaching them a song to make it easier for them to remember the Alphabet... How difficult it can be? The English Alphabet only has 26 letters, while the Japanese Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries each contain 46 basic characters or 71 including diacritics. And let's not talk about Kanji as there are more than 50,000 and that is a lot over 9000!'

Finally, it is almost time for my first class to start, so I get up from the comfy chair, walk out of the Teachers' Lounge, and start to head toward the class I'm going to teach before the bell rings, the class 5-2, the one whose homeroom teacher is Asanuma Nami.

After walking for a few minutes, I arrive in front of the door of Class 5-2 and calmly wait for the bell to ring indicating the end of Asanuma Nami's class and the start of mine.

I don't have to wait too long to hear the bell's pleasant chime, and a few more minutes later, Asanuma Nami opens the door, notices my presence, and with a smile she says, "I see that you are punctual as usual, Pucci-sensei. That's a very good habit to have. Come in then, let me introduce you to the class."

I nod and politely thank her for inviting me inside, and then I step into the classroom.

As expected, as soon as the students catch sight of my figure, the chaotic buzzing noise of many kids talking at the same time is unleashed, among which I can catch a few more distinct and common questions and comments.

"Who is he?"

"Is he a new teacher?"

"He is huge!!"

"Is he a foreign?"

"How handsome!"

And much more along those lines.

But soon Asanuma Nami takes control of the situation by yelling, "Silence!" instantly bringing the noise now, and once she has the attention of most of the students, Asanuma Nami starts to introduce me to the class, "Listen up everyone, this person beside me is Pucci-sensei. He is going to be your English Teacher starting from today."

Taking this as my clue, I step forward and take a step forward, at the same time, Asanuma Nami steps back and positions herself in a corner of the classroom, a clear indication that she leaves everything to me, but of course as we have discussed before, she won't leave the class and will remain here to evaluate my lesson and also to be ready to act or interrupt me in case something goes wrong or I lose control of the class, of course, that isn't the only reason, she is also here to reassure the kids, after all, until now they always had the classes with their homeroom teachers, and this kind of situation is a first one for them.

As I step forward and feel their eyes focusing on me, just before introducing myself, I take a quick look at the students in this class and as expected, I find a few familiar faces and focus on them one at a time. 

The first one to catch my eye is undoubtedly a young boy with light skin, light brown hair, and light red eyes, he wears a blue hooded shirt over a white t-shirt, with long gray shorts, yellow wristbands on his hands, and green converse sneakers, even if he doesn't wear his iconic yellow goggles over his forehead, it is very easy to recognize him, he is Matsuda Takato, one of the three main protagonist of this universe, the future Tamer of Guilmon, who is from time to time stealing a few glances at a girl in particular, unable to hide the crush he has on her. 

(Image Here - Matsuda Takato)

The girl in question is another familiar face, Katou Juri, a preteen girl with brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair which is worn with a ponytail on the left side and a green hairclip, she wears a yellow shirt under a green dress, yellow socks, and white and cerulean sneakers, she usually carries a disturbing yellow dog sock puppet with a red mouth, pink ears, black nose, and dark brown eyes which at the moment is hidden somewhere. 

(Image Here - Katou Juri)

She is most likely the person with the most unfortunate fate in this universe, she is going to be the Tamer of "Jesus" Leomon.

The reason behind that title is very different from Kira "Jesus" Yamato from the Gundam Seed Universe, where Kira has a plot armor so strong that he is basically able to resurrect from certain death without any rhyme or reason, Leomon is the total opposite as this Digimon seems to be totally unable to survive until the end of any anime, manga, movie, and game, in one way or another Leomon will die, in fact, in this particular universe he even takes it up a notch and literally dies for someone else's sin. 

In addition, Leomon's death would send Juri into a state of depression making her easy prey for the reemerging D-Reaper, which would use her misery to fuel itself and infiltrate the Real World in her form causing the potential destruction of this whole universe, something I wish to avoid very much.

After lingering my gaze on her for a few instants, I move on to the next familiar face, Shiota Hirokazu another of the future Tamers and a very close friend of Takato who is usually the source of many Digimon-related information when needed. 

He is a young boy with lightly tanned skin, spiky light brown hair, and dark blue eyes, he is slightly taller than the other kids in his age group and wears a dark blue T-shirt with a stylized cross resembling the Crest of Reliability, yellow-cream shorts, reddish brown wristbands, olive green socks, and blue and grey shoes, he usually wears a dark blue and dark green tennis visor, though he doesn't wear it during school hours as I can easily see it attached to his backpack. 

(Image Here - Shiota Hirokazu)

Right next to him, there is the last future Tamer in this class, Kitagawa Kenta, another very close friend of both Takato and Kazu as the three very often gather together to play after school hours.

He is a young boy with light skin, straight dark green hair with bangs parted in the middle, and dark eyes, he wears large rimless glasses with silver temples, an orange T-shirt under an opened khaki short-sleeved button-up shirt, dark brown shorts, white socks, and light grey shoes with aquamarine laces and soles. 

(Image Here - Kitagawa Kenta)

Quickly after I took a look at all the students, I smiled and started to introduce myself, "Good morning, everyone. My name is Pucci Jayr and as Asanuma-sensei just told you, I'm going to be your English Teacher from now on, if you have any questions feel free to ask them but please, raise your hands before you ask..."

As soon as I finish saying that a dozen hands instantly rise, and I simply pick a random student among them, it is a little boy with black hair and brown eyes, who stands up and asks, "Pucci-sensei! My name is Yamamoto Koiji! I'd like to know how did you become so huge?"

Hearing that question, I smirk a little before I answer, "Well, in part it is because both my Grandfather from my mother's side and my father are very tall and so I took after them. But another important reason is that I made sure to drink a lot of milk and eat well as I was growing up and I also did a lot of physical activities like sports. And this is the result of all those factors."

After replying to that question, I point at another student who wants to ask a question, this time is a girl with violet hair styled in a pigtail and reddish eyes who asks, "Where are you from, Pucci-sensei? And how old are you?" to which I calmly reply, "Well, I was born in Italy and lived there until I graduated from high school, and after that, I moved to England to study at the Cambridge University and I lived there until I completed my education, and then, I started to travel all around the world until I arrived in Japan and meet with the woman who is now my wife. As for how old I am, well, I'm 20 years old."

This continues for a few more minutes as the kids continue to ask me a few more questions, some silly like how I make my hair look like this, which almost made me unconsciously reply with "Anime Logic", some a little more serious what they should expect from my class, and after answering them, I decide that it is time to truly start my class.

The first thing I do is a quick roll call to memorize everyone's names and faces, and after that, I start my lessons by explaining the Alphabet to them while also writing down each letter with their phonetic sound on the blackboard so that they copy it on their notebooks.

After that, I started to teach them an ABC song but with a little twist as I associated each letter with the name of a Digimon as I thought it could be more fun for the kids and help them remember the Alphabet even easier, especially since in this universe, the Digimon are quite popular thanks to the card game, and it seems that I was right as the kids had fun singing the song and memorized it more easily. 

Then I moved on by teaching them some simple greetings like "Hello." "Good morning." "Good afternoon." "Good evening." and "Goodbye." associating them with their Japanese equivalent of "Konnichiwa." "Ohayou gozaimasu." "Konbanwa." And "Sayonara." 

Just like that, the time for my first class is about to come to an end, and so, I move next to my desk and say, "I think that is enough for today... Now for my next class, I hope that all of you will practice the Agumon-Betamon-Clockmon song and memorize all the greetings I have taught you today, in fact, starting from my next class I want you guys to greet me in English from now on, okay?"

In response, all the kids reply with a loud, "Yes!" which brings a smile to my face, and then, I suddenly remember a certain song and say, "Now... Since our time is about to end... would you like to listen to me singing another song related to what I taught you guys today, the Alphabet? In fact, it can be considered the next level after you have mastered to sing the Alphabet."

Once again, all the students reply with a yes, and with their permission, I smirk and start to slowly tap the desk with my hand in a way that creates a dull rhythmic sound similar to that of a drum while saying, "Very well, the title of this song is Alphabet Aerobics sung by Blackalicious. A very good and challenging song for those who want to learn English. Something I consider the single greatest vocal exercise ever created." 

And then, I start to slowly sing, "♪Artificial amateurs aren't at all amazing. Analytically, I assault, animate things. Broken barriers bounded by the bomb beat. Buildings are broken, basically I'm bombarding. Casually create catastrophes, casualties. Canceling cats got their canopies collapsing. Detonate a dime of dank daily doin' dough. Demonstrations, Don Dada on the down low.♪"

As they look at me in wonder, I start to increase the pace and the rhythm as I also start to sing faster, "♪Eatin' other editors with each and every energetic. Epileptic episode, elevated etiquette. Furious fat fabulous fantastic. Flurries of funk felt feeding the fanatics. Gift got great global goods gone glorious. Gettin' Godly in his game with the goriest. Hit 'em high, hella hype, historical. Hey holocaust hints hear 'em holler at your homeboy.♪"

Finishing those verses, I start to up both the rhythm and the speed even more, "♪Imitators idolize, I intimidate. In a instant, I'll rise in a irate state. Juiced on my jams like jheri curls, jockin' joints. Justly, it's just me, writin' my journals. Kindly I'm kindling all kinds of ink on. Karate kick type Brits in my kingdom. Let me live a long life, lyrically lessons is. Learned lame louses just lose to my livery.♪" 

At this point, both the rhythm and speed become difficult for those who aren't particularly good at singing at a fast pace, "♪Imitators idolize, I intimidate. In a instant, I'll rise in a irate state. Juiced on my jams like jheri curls, jockin' joints. Justly, it's just me, writin' my journals. Kindly I'm kindling all kinds of ink on. Karate kick type Brits in my kingdom. Let me live a long life, lyrically lessons is. Learned lame louses just lose to my livery.♪"

After singing that last verse, I increase the pace and rhythm even more, and suddenly, the song becomes a difficult tongue twister that even those who have a good mastery of the English Language would have some difficulties pulling off, "♪My mind makes marvelous moves, masses. Marvel and move, many mock what I've mastered. Nap knowin' I'm nice naturally. Knack, never lack, make noise nationally. Operation, opposition, off, not optional. Out of sight, out of mind, wide beaming opticals. Perfected poem, powerful punchlines. Pummeling petty powder puffs in my prime.♪"

Soon I arrive at the point that after each verse I keep going faster and faster, but while I still make sure that every word I sing can be heard as clearly as possible, "♪Quite quaint quotes keep quiet it's Quannum. Quarrelers ain't got a quarter of what we got, uh. Really raw raps, risin' up rapidly. Riding the rushing radioactivity. Super scientifical sound search sought. Silencing super fire saps that are soft. Tales ten times talented, they're too tough. Take that, challengers, get a tune up.♪"

At this point, all the kids and even Asanuma Nami are looking at me with their mouths wide open, because even if they don't understand the words, it is clear that they have never heard someone sing so fast, "♪Universal, unique untouched. Unadulterated, the raw uncut. Verb vice Lord victorious valid. Violate vibes that are vain make 'em vanished. Why I'm all well, would a wise wordsmith. Just weaving up words weeded up, on my work shift. Xerox, my X-ray-diation holes extra large. X-height letters and xylophone tones.♪" 

Finally, I sing the last verse as words come out so fast that it is almost at the limit of what a regular human can sing, "♪Yellow back, yak mouth, young ones yaws. Yesterday's lawn yards sell our yawn. Zig zag zombies, zoomin' to the zenith. Zero in zen thoughts, over zealous rhyme Zea-lots!♪"

The end of my performance is met with absolute silence that lasts for a few seconds before the kids start to clap and cheer as I lightly bow like every performer at the end of his act to thank the audience, and then, with a smile, I say, "Thank you. Thank you. This is the song I used when I started learning English to exercise both my pronunciation and speaking ability... I hope that in future you too will be able to do something like this." 

After saying that, I say goodbyes to the kids and leave the class in the hands of their homeroom teacher Asanuma Nami, who gives me a slight nod of approval, and then as the bell rings once again indicating the end of this class, I quickly move toward my next destination, the class assigned to Toshiaki Mori, the class 5-1, which is also the last class I have to teach for the day.

It doesn't take too much time to arrive in front of the door of class 5-1 because it is very close to class 5-2. 

Once I'm standing in front of the door, I don't hesitate and knock on the door, and soon after, Toshiaki Mori opens the door and warmly invites me inside.

Just like what happened before, my appearance causes the kids to chaotically chatter, but soon Toshiaki Mori takes control of the situation and introduces me to the class.

After that, I follow the same script as before, I take a step forward and before introducing myself, I take a closer look at the class, eespecially since I know that there is another familiar face present in this class, and as I expected, I instantly notice him, Lee Jianliang.

Lee Jianliang, who can also be called Li Jianliang, is a young boy with tanned skin, short blue hair, and gray eyes, he wears a sleeveless orange vest with a zipper over a black t-shirt, brown pants, black socks, gray and yellow shoes with white soles, and white wrist bands.

(Image Here -Li Jianliang)

He is another one of the main Tamers of this universe together with Takato, he is the Tamer of Terriermon, one of the many Digimon so cute that almost makes you want to squeeze it in a hug.

Furthermore, he is the one, among the three main Tamers, who received his partner long before everyone else, and created such a strong bond with it, that it is already able to make it evolve to the Adult stage.

As it is clear by his name, Jianliang is half-Chinese and half-Japanese, his father is Chinese and his mother is Japanese.

If I remember well, he is the third oldest of four siblings, he has a 17-year-old brother, and a 15-year-old sister, as well as a 7-year-old sister, Shaochung who will become the Tamer of Lopmon. 

From what I have seen in the anime and from seeing him in person, I understand that he is a responsible, quiet, and soft-spoken person who conducts himself with maturity but also tends to blame himself for things beyond his control. 

Furthermore, his father is also quite important in this universe as he is part of the group that "created" the Digimon.

The Wild Bunch, was originally a group formed by programming students with the goal to create artificial intelligence under the direction of Professor Rob McCoy at Palo Alto University, California. 

Rob McCoy's son designed the Digimon, Mizuno Gorou wrote the code that allowed the Digimon to evolve, Daisy designed the devices that allowed them to communicate with the Digimon, and together the group managed to create artificial beings with a desire for survival. 

However, eventually, the university cut the project's funding and presumably sold the designs for the Digimon characters to Bandai who proceeded to make a toy and anime franchise based on them which funnily enough depicts the events of the parallel universe known as Digimon Adventure.

Unbeknownst to them, the Digimon escaped from the experiment and into the worldwide network, at least in this particular universe of the Digital Multiverse, this is the origin behind the Digimon, at least a part of it as for sure Yggdrasil had a hand in the Digimon's escape and further creation of the iteration of the Digital World in this universe.

After, taking a look at all my students, I once again go through the process of introducing myself, answering some of their questions, and then move on with the lesson, doing basically the same thing I did in the previous class, and at the end of the class, I return to the Teacher's Lounge, write my reports, and chat and help other teacher to look busy and pass time until it is time for everyone to leave.