It's morning, I woke up from my sleep, to notice I'm already late for school. Ah crap! I quickly cleaned myself and changed into my uniform. I packed my basketball along with the clothes into a bag and begin running out of my house, with a single toast with jam.
As I ran, I noticed a girl, oh, it's the girl next door, Rika-chan!
"Rika-chan! Good morning!" I said.
"Who are you...?" Rika-chan said, with a disgusted face.
"Oh? Rika-chan, it's me, Tachibana Yuuma! Your neighbour next door! We even played together when we were little!" I said. She looked confused and then ignored me.
We waited for the traffic light to turn green. Once it turned green, Rika-chan crossed the road. I followed her straight after. She stopped her footsteps.
"You. I don't know who you are. But you are annoying." Rika-chan said, then walked towards the school. I walked slowly, as my pace slowed down, I began to notice my surroundings. Girls were around, looking in my direction. Ah... That is what happened. A girl walked towards me. I remembered her. She is a delinquent in the school, Maki-san.
"Yuuma... Yuuma-san! Please accept this!" Maki-san said. It's a crudely made gift box, it didn't look perfect, but it's the sincerity that counts. I'm glad, but I couldn't accept this.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't accept this. But I'm glad to know that you felt that way for me." I walked past her, towards the direction to the school. I could only hear Maki-san clicks her tongue. I remember the faces of the girls who confesses to me. However, there is a promise I wanted to keep. A promise with Rika-chan. I'll become his boyfriend, and I'll work on it. I wonder why did she avoided me since we entered middle school. I'll look for her later then.
Rika-chan's classroom is 1-C, which is a class lower than mine. I walked by 1-C, she is not on her seat nor in the classroom. She usually reads something on her seat. She never talked to anyone. A weird idea came to my mind... What was that...? Being bullied? I felt an odd sensation surging through my body, triggering my athletic reflexes. I ran into my classroom and placed down my belongings and rushed out of the classroom. A gym teacher passed by, he told me to return to my classroom as classes were about to begin. I ran past him and dodged his grip. He was about to grab my collar from the back. I started to run, he then starting chasing me as well.
"Yuuma-kun from 1-B? Why is he being chased by sensei?"
"He's so cool!"
"Yuuma-kun became a bad boy? Kyaaa I loved it!"
Random cheers from girls from classes nearby, I felt tired of them. Why would they look at a guy who was not even interested of them in the first place? If it was because of my looks, I wouldn't even wanted to look this good in the first place. Storage rooms, gymnasium, changing rooms, I listened through the doors, yet I heard nothing. When I reached the girl's bathroom, I heard splashing and laughter, notably Maki-san. Could it be her...? Sensei caught up, I rushed into the toilet without hesitation. With sensei's loud voice, Maki-san and her gang were alerted.
"So this is what happened to Rika-chan years ago..." I murmured with a cold tone.
I heard Rika-chan coughing behind a toilet room. I opened it and saw her drenched in grey water. I clenched my fist and punched towards the wall close to Maki-san's face. She seemed scared, perhaps being found out doing something that is not supposed to be seen by me.
"Never show up in front of me again." I said, with a calm voice, filled with anger. Maki-san sat on the floor, with her gang trying to escape, to be caught by sensei. Rika-chan is shivering, either being cold or being scared, or both.
"I'm sorry, Rika-chan... I'm sorry..." I said. Rika-chan cried. All of us got an ear full of scolding from the discipline department. I, on the other hand were praised, but had several offences such as running in the hallway and trespassing into the girls' bathroom. I requested a female teacher to accompany Rika-chan to take a shower and change her clothes. The sensei then proceeded to bring Rika-chan with her. I looked at her as she leaves, Rika-chan looked at me as she left the room. I then returned to my classroom.
"Yuuma-kun stopped a girl from being bullied!"
"He's my hero!"
"I hope to be rescued by him like that."
I didn't know why, but I felt angry when people were making fun about being bullied.
"Enough! Did you even know what it means to be bullied?!" I shouted at them. I clenched my fists, and then walked away. It took a while before it started being noisy again. I hope they are being sorry about this.
I entered my classroom, with most of my friends ans some girls cheered on me. They all heard what happened just now.
"Hey, Yuuma just became a hero!"
"He saved a girl, well she's damn lucky, wow!"
"Good to go, Yuuma-kun!"
I honestly felt tired of all these nonsense. I bowed to my social studies teacher to apologise about being late for his class. He forgave me since he even referenced me with a general with great chivalry, honestly... I'm really nothing of that sort.
"Tachibana-kun, for what you have missed, it's from page 36 onward, where it mentions the story between Genbu and Genji." Sensei told me where to look at. The book looked boring, I really wanted to know how is Rika-chan doing now. I just spaced out until sensei called my name again.
"Tachibana-san, our hero over there." Sensei said, the entire class laughed. I quickly stood up.
Could you repeat what I had explained over here? What did Genbu do to avoid war with his brother, Genji?" Sensei asked. He looked like he is very certain that I couldn't answer his questions. It's not like I actually know what this story is about... But wait... I felt like I had known this somewhere...
"Genji is a brother who Genbu looked up to in his childhood. Thus a war with his beloved brother is certainly the last thing he wanted to happen." I said. The class looked at me with a slight confused face. While sensei is sure fascinated, since he is enthusiastic towards his own subject.
"Not bad, you even knew this! Please go on!" Sensei urged.
"Genbu knows that he couldn't best his brother in the arts of war, so he tried to reconcile with Genji, but to no avail. In the end, Genbu looked for an adviser who lived as a hermit in the mountains and even convinced him to join his side. Genji, who is fully aware of that is still stubborn on sending troops on march despite the disadvantage." I said. Since this one is probably written on the textbooks, some of the classmates nodded. Sensei nodded and urged me to continue.
"Then what happened?" Sensei asked curiously. I noticed that this is not even written on the book. Where did I even knew all this? However, the information is still flowing in my mind.
"Genji went to Genbu's camp for a talk a night before the war. In fact they talked about the old times. Genbu finds out that he is only capable of fighting and not much in handling a country. Thus they agreed to join forces and built a strong country that eventually unites all Hoshido in just two decades." I finished my answer. I took a moment to scan through the textbook, yet the answer sensei actually wanted is actually "Genbu looked for an adviser in the mountains." and "Genji talked to Genbu a night before war." While the paragraph that mentions about uniting all Hoshido were two pages away. It takes an intensive study to put together an answer like this. I wonder when did I studied like this.
"Tachibana-kun, you were perfect. You have both brawn and brains, but you have to respect me as a sensei, please pay attention in classes more often." Sensei complimented. He just made an interesting reference to a famous adviser, the class is just amused with him.
"Yes, sensei!" I answered and then sits down. I never studied this topic yet, how do I even know about this? Am I just lucky?
It's lunchtime, I looked for Rika-chan, she is sitting on the stairs, alone. I approached her with a bread I managed to snag in the cafeteria.
"Rika-chan, are you okay now?" I sat down next to her, she flinched and coughed, perhaps being choked.
"Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." I said.
"... .... ... you..." She murmured.
"Excuse me, could you repeat it again?" I asked, since I didn't hear that.
"Idiot!" She said. She then packs her lunchbox and walked away.