A few minutes later, I looked over at Kanako who was fast asleep.
I guess I can go somewhere else now.
**
I was sitting on her couch, watching some random stuff on the television. A few hours passed since she fell asleep and it seemed that she was awake again. She had gotten out of bed and was standing at her doorway.
"Mizuhara..."
I looked over.
"Yeah? You're awake?"
"Yes..."
"How are you feeling?"
"A little bit better... my body is still a bit sore..."
I made my way over.
"You should probably get some more re—"
"Mizuhara, teach me..."
"Teach you?"
"We have some exams next week..."
"You should rest up until you feel better."
"No... we don't have much time..."
That was true.
I guess doing some schoolwork wouldn't be too much of a strain on her body. I made my way over to her desk and looked at the books she had. From what I could tell, it seemed that she was seriously studying even when I wasn't here.
I had taught her English, maths and science to an extent. The last thing was humanities, which shouldn't be too difficult. I grabbed her history textbook and had a quick read of it. Most of the questions were somewhat subjective, so I tried to select a wide variety.
Kanako was standing beside me, looking somewhat lethargic.
"Alright, complete the questions I set."
"O-kay~"
She took a seat at her desk and began working hard on the work I set for her.
She's come quite far from the first time I worked with her.
"You can take a seat if you want," she said.
"I'll go grab one."
"It's okay. You can sit on my bed if you want."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I guess."
I took a seat on her soft pink bed and looked over as she worked.
She was still struggling quite heavily with the questions I set her. However, she was constantly reading through her textbook trying to find the answer. Every few seconds, she'd flip through her textbook, rereading paragraphs and highlighting sentences. Even though she took almost 10 minutes to do a question, she appeared to be quite satisfied with her answer.
"Have you done the first question?" I asked
"Yeah, I just finished it."
I got up and looked at the work she did.
"It's right."
"Really?"
"You might want to include the phrase primary evidence, but aside from that, it's correct."
She showed a beaming smile, and immediately after, her expression went back to normal.
She turned back around, looking down at her page, happily reading the next question.
I sat back down and looked at my phone. I had received a text from Okamoto.
—We're going to the beach this afternoon, do you want to come?
I guess it could be fun.
"Hey Kanako, will you be alright this afternoon?"
"Huh? What's the matter?"
"I want to go down to the beach with some friends."
"Well, I might die, but aside from that, I'll be fine."
"Eh?"
"You can go if you want, I guess."
She gave me a glare and then turned around to continue doing her work.
What was that supposed to mean?
She scribbled down answers as she read through the textbook. For almost 30 minutes straight, she didn't look up at anything else. She was completely focused on her work.
I got up and brought the green tea I had bought over to her.
"Here, stay hydrated."
"O-oh, thank you."
Suddenly, she looked away from me.
What?
She took two large gulps of the tea and then turned her attention back to the questions she was doing.
Almost an hour later, she finally finished all of the questions I set her and she handed her workbook to me.
"I'm done."
"Good job."
I read through her answers.
From what I could see, she was clearly struggling with some of the more complex questions. Most of her answers were missing keywords and specific key points which would've definitely cost her marks in a real test. However, compared to the first day, she was much better, almost getting half of the questions correct.
I put the book in front of her and began explaining some of the mistakes she made.
"You need to focus on including all of the keywords."
"How do I know what words to include?"
I flipped through a few pages of the textbook and started to highlight some words.
"You can generally find the keywords by seeing and identifying the most important words in some of the dot points."
I gave her an example by highlighting some of the words which were in the textbook.
"Just make sure you include these words in your answers, this is quite important to ensure you get full marks for the questions you understand."
"I see."
I had a look at a few of her other mistakes. It seemed that she struggled to make conclusions based on specific pieces of information. I decided to write down some tips for her like I did the previous few subjects and left it as a note beside her.
"Take a look at these tips before answering a question."
"Okay."
I picked up her textbook again and circled a few more questions. Now that I knew what she needed to focus on, I could target those specific weaknesses. I was surprised that none of her other tutors was able to identify her common errors like this. There was a pretty clear pattern to the things she struggled with.
I placed the textbook down and allowed her to try the questions.
She was making progress pretty quickly. At this rate, she should be able to pass her next exams.
Now that I thought about it, I guess once she passes her exams I'll be relieved of my duty for the most part. Her father could technically continue to threaten me and force me to continue but I wasn't going to let that happen. I only begrudgingly accepted the first time because he offered a good salary and I felt a little bit of gratitude for his funding of the Ideal Human Project.
He wasn't going to be able to manipulate me again.
Forty minutes later, she finished the next set of questions I set for her.
She improved quite a bit from the first set. From what I could see, as long as she continued to practice with my advice, she'll be able to improve on her own.
I guess I'll get ready to go to the beach.