It took a few weeks before I was allowed to begin assisting one of the teachers in their classes. My superior was an older man by the name of Minato Kurokawa, a shorter man even for Japan who seemed to buzz with energy and seemed truly passionate in his work.
When he introduced me to the class a few people gasped in surprise, it wasn't like I was completely unknown. A big Gaijin like myself working as a Janitor was going to make people take notice and few people had heard how I'd taken Kohta Hirano under my wing, and his confidence had grown in the last month since he'd started strength training along with some weight loss. However, me showing up in a pair of Khaki slacks and a red polo shirt instead of the Custodial outfit that could be generously called a tent seemed to have knocked many of them for a loop.
Kohta was the first to break the silence. "Mr. Brody? When did you become a teacher?" The rest of the class turned back to look at him, all a bit surprised that he'd spoken up and many that he seemed to know me.
I grinned and nodded in his direction. "That's Brody-Sensei while we're in the classroom, Mr. Hirano. As for my new job, apparently Principal Yamada decided that with Miss Clare going home he needed a new assistant teacher quickly and apparently my Japanese is good enough to pass muster for the teaching job. Besides, he didn't want to have to go through the madness of the JET program's paperwork. Have you seen the forms? I have, if you bound all those papers into a single book you could club an ox to death with the thing." I shuddered dramatically to drive home the point. Which promptly got a laugh out of most of the class.
I chuckled with them for a moment, before I continued with my introduction. "If anyone's wondering how I know Hirano, well, I had made an agreement with Principal Yamada about a month and a half ago. If I made sure to clean up after myself then I could use the weight room here to my heart's content. About a month ago I had met Mr. Hirano, and I'd noticed he'd been having some troubles and I'd offered to have him join my strength training regimen. And now you know my past. So let's continue with this class then. Yamada-Sensei, I guess you take the stage now?"
I backed away and let Yamada do the heavy lifting, my job seemed to be having an example of a native speaker to hear and practice as well as some cultural exposure.
The high point that day was when I was telling them not to be afraid to practice their English, otherwise they'd never learn. "It doesn't really matter how your grammarstructure sounds. Well, it does, but not as much as it might in other languages. The thing about English is that it's a bastard language, pardon my French (an idiom that got a chuckle from those that got it), meaning that the structure was broken from the old Anglo-Saxon when the Normans came over and brought their French and you can speak the words of the sentence in plenty of orders and still be understood.
You might also catch some words from other languages interspersed through American English, that comes from how we had people from all over the world coming and bringing their mother tongues with them. There's a joke I've come across before that English, especially American English, is the language that clubs other languages over the heads in a dark alley then rifles through their pockets for loose grammar."
Once that one got through to them, that got them laughing even harder. I took a quick bow. "Thank you! I'll be here all week, and the week after that."
Once classes were done, I was heading over to the Nurse's office to speak with Shizuka about how my first day of classes had gone, when I almost bumped into a young lady coming out of the office. The first thing I registered was long dark hair with a purple shade to it. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, miss." I bowed in apology, then my eyes widened for an instant when I got a better look at my companion.
Besides the purple hair which was easily as long as Shizuka's, she also had blatantly non-Japanese blue eyes and an angular look to her face, reminding me of nothing so much as a bird of prey, those eyes had the same intensity and banked ferocity, just waiting to be let loose. Yep, I'd just met another member of the HOTD team, nation-wide acclaimed kendoka Saeko Busujima. She was easily as tall as Shizuka though not nearly as...bountiful, though she certainly had nothing to worry about on that front and what was I thinking this was a student! Likely one of mine!
Thankfully she didn't seem to have been too flustered as she bowed respectfully and said; "No, you did nothing wrong Brody-sensei, I opened that door at the wrong moment and I wasn't looking where I was going."
"Well no harm no fuss then, I guess." I said with a grin. Then I remembered where she'd walked out of. "Erm, I hope I'm not prying, but what brings you here to the Nurse's office, you're not hurt are you?" I glanced her over looking for bruises or other injuries, spotting nothing.
"Oh no, I'm alright. I was just taking one of my teammates here, he sprained his wrist during practice today." She replied, seemingly giving me a once-over as well, not like someone interested in the opposite sex but like someone sizing up someone else for a fight.
"Well, I won't delay you from your club activities, miss, so have a good day." I bowed and she did as well, turning around and striding off back towards wherever the kendo dojo was located… wait a minute…
"Erm, wait! Hold on, Miss Busujima, if I could have a moment." I called out and trotted after her.
She stopped and turned around, curious what my reason for stopping her could be. "Yes, Brody-Sensei?" Her eyes were now a bit curious.
"You said you were part of the Kendo club, yes?" I asked, a plan beginning to form in my mind. "I wanted to ask you a favor. You see, an acquaintance of mine was an avid weapons collector, especially of Dark Ages European gear. But when he had to give some of his stuff away I ended up receiving some of it. Thing is, I've been wanting to learn how to use it for a while now, but I haven't had anywhere to practice with them."
"And you wish to use the Kendo Dojo to practice?" She asked, her eyebrows arched.
"Erm, yes, but I haven't managed to find a club member before now and ask them, let alone their teacher, advisor or instructor if I could use the facilities, unless that'd be too presumptive." I said a bit sheepishly.
Her eyes narrowed for a moment. "What are they?" The look in her eyes seemed to indicate that she thought I might have a bunch of movie prop junk.
"A Frankish Francisca battle axe, a German Iron Age long spear, and a full sized Germanic Round Shield with an Iron Boss, they're all authentically forged and combat ready,though I can't tell you the maker they seem to be excellently made from what I could tell." I couldn't help the small satisfaction I felt when her eyes widened at my words.
"And they really ARE authentic?" Her tone was now a bit curious.
"Authentic enough that I managed to hack a branch thicker than my wrist right off a tree over in the park. Had to run like the hounds of hell were after me I'll admit. Some old lady spotted me hacking at trees and was calling for the police….please forget I said that." I winced at the memory of that when I'd smuggled my weapons to the local park to try and get some practice with them. Apparently ROB had supernaturally sharpened them as they were razor sharp and hadn't lost their edge in the slightest even after whacking on a tree with the ax for a minute.
"Interesting…." She mused to herself, a spark flashing in her eyes. "Well, I have no issue with that nor should our advisor. When would you be practicing?"
"Oh, erm, later in the evening. Usually I lift weights starting around 6:30 in the evening for about an hour, along with some endurance and sprints. But I think I could replace a few days of practice with my gear every evening."
"Very well, then I'll see you at 6:30 tomorrow." With that she turned and headed to her club.
"Thank you... wait what?" I spluttered. I felt like I'd missed something here… ah well, I got a place to practice without old biddies accusing me of herbicide so that's a plus.
I walked into Shizuka's office. And was surprised to see that Shizuka didn't have the usual white blouse and black skirt she usually wore. Instead, she had a blue tank top with an unbuttoned white shirt and white, looser fitting skirt on.
She was writing something down on some sort of form when she looked over at the door and saw me standing in the door. "Oh Tom! Hello, how was your first day teaching?"
She walked over to the door with a slight spring in her step and her wide smile on her face. Still was a treat every time I saw her.
"It went fine, Shizuka, the students seemed to like me well enough, even managed to get them to laugh a few times and they seemed to pay attention.���
"That's great, Tom, I knew you had it in you." Her smile was, if anything, even brighter, then she started fidgeting a bit and averted her eyes.
"What?" I asked.
She snapped back at me then glanced at the young man sitting in one of the chairs, struggling very hard to look anywhere else but at the doorway.
I nodded and stepped out of the room and back into the hallway. She followed and closed the office door behind her.
"Well, some of my old college classmates were having a get together tonight. But my roomate Rika decided that she wanted to join us at the last minute, since she was a classmate as well, but now we've got an odd number of people and... well, Iwaswonderingifyoucouldcomealongwithus?" The last bit she blurted out in a bit of a tumble and it took me a moment to decipher what she'd said.
I blinked for a moment then slowly asked; "You sure the others won't mind me coming along?"
"No, not at all, at least I don't think they would. But it's better to ask for forgiveness then for permission right?" She said that with more conviction that the situation warranted, but that was part of her charm.
I considered this for a moment, I wasn't exactly a social guru and this was a bit daunting but one look as Shizuka's face and all objections turned to dust and blew away in the proverbial wind….yep...I had it bad alright….
"Well, I've been needing to get out more and now I can say I'm a school teacher instead of a janitor, it's got a bit more dignity to it don't you think?" I said with a smile.
"So you'll come? Thank you so much! I'll be sure to tell Rika. Here, let me give you the address." She handed me the business card for a bar of some sort that was located on the far side of the city. Hmm...hadn't been there before.
"Alright, I'll be there."
"Thank you again, Tom!" She surprised me by giving me a big bear hug… promptly short-circuiting my brain for several minutes while she went back into her office. I wasn't sure HOW, exactly, I managed to get back to my apartment that evening, but I distinctly recall humming We Are the Champions at some point.