“Who is it!  Who did that to my car?” The head teacher questioned, slamming his hands down on top of the podium in the classroom of 3-D.

The students ran wild, not paying attention to Sawatari.

“Yamaguchi-sensei, aren’t you in charge here?  Do something!” The slimeball next to Sawatari questioned.

“But do you have the goods on them?  I mean, evidence that they did it?”

“Yeah!  Yeah!  She’s right!” Uchi exclaimed.

Sawatari walked closer them, “The evidence is… Here!”  He pointed at drops of what seemed to be orange liquid.

“You guys should have been more careful…” Yankumi spoke under her breath.

“Who did it?” Sawatari questioned, back at the podium.

“I told you, we don’t know!” Kuma spoke, hitting the desk with his hand.                           

Uchi spoke once again, “Even if we did, we’d never sell out our friends.”

Yankumi walked in front of the podium, “Hm… You guys understand duty and compassion, don’t you?”

“Of course, because we’re all friends.”

“You guys have a good side too, I see.”

“Yamaguchi-sensei,” Sawatari spoke.

“Why are you praising them?” Slimeball asked.

“Well, hold on.  As you guys say, you shouldn’t sell out your friends.  But…  The person responsible should have the guts to come forward.”

“All right.  That’s it.” Sawatari spoke.  “Well, then… All of you will be detained today.  You’ll stay until the culprit comes forward!  You’re all responsible.”

“That’s bull!  Don’t kid around!”

“I have to stay too?” Yankumi asked.

“Of course.  You’re their homeroom teacher, aren’t you?  Well, it’s up to you.” Sawatari began heading towards the door and out of it.

“Excuse me, but I have a goukon to go to today…” Yankumi spoke.  She turned back to the students, “Well, I guess it can’t be helped…  Since you guys are friends.”

Sawada shot up, slamming his chair against his desk.  “Friends?  Don’t use that word so easily.”  He then proceeded to walk out, waving Jun along with him.

“Sawada, where are you going?  Sawada!”  Yankumi yelled.

Jun wasn’t going to move at first, but then thought it was best to follow him out.  She limped over to where Sawada was waiting for her to catch up.  “Sorry, Yankumi, I have to go to work today.”  Jun felt an arm wrap around her waist, the boy with the worst attitude helping her to walk.

-----

An hour after school finished, the boys of class 3-D sat around, playing games.

“I’m impressed by everyone’s perseverance.”  Yankumi spoke to the boys that ignored her.  “It’s admirable that no one has talked so far.”

“Alright!” Minami shouted, hopping off his desk.  He grabbed his bag as he placed his phone in his pocket.  “I’m off to see Ayumi-chan.”

“Where are you headed?” Yankumi questioned Minami as he went out the same door as Sawada and Jun left out of earlier.  “They said it’s your collective responsibility.  Minami!”  She began walking through to go towards the back door, but Noda put his leg up to stop Yankumi from walking.  Kuma grabbed Yankumi’s waist, while Uchi grabbed her arms.

“No through-traffic.  Minami.  Go, go!” Uchi cheered as the brown headed boy left the classroom.  “Just let him go, Yankumi.  Normally Minami’s just playing around, but this time he’s serious.  It’s true love.”

“True love?”  Yankumi asked, beginning to daydream.  She snatched out of the boys’ grasps.  “You’re all good guys.  Alright!  Since I can see you’re all such good friends, I’ll let you off today.”

“Let us off?” Kuma asked.  “You mean we can go home?”

“Sure, I’ll allow it.  On one condition… That you clean the car up.” Yamaguchi announced.  “Everyone change into gym clothes and meet at the parking lot.”

-----

Jun was soon at home, and was getting ready for work at the restaurant.  She placed her wig on top of her head, parting the hair easily and pulling it into a ponytail.  Jun was surprised that Sawada had been so nice to her since the night before, unsure why he was acting the way he had been.  She sighed at her appearance in the mirror.  “I’m so ugly and scarred…  Why do I even bother?”  Jun began putting her make-up on when a knock came on the front door.

“Jun, it’s Sawada.  May I speak with you for a moment?”

“Come on in!” Jun yelled from the bathroom, looking in the mirror.

Sawada opened the front door.  “You’re seriously going to work?  Being injured like that?”  He noticed the clothes stranded across the apartment.  “Do I have to stay with you and call in sick for you at your work?”

“Are you… threatening me?” Jun questioned, turning to face him.  “You have lost your mind if you’re threatening me.”

“Yes, I am.  That’s the only way for you to listen, isn’t it?”

“I’m going to work, and that’s final.  You can’t stop me.”

“Jun-“

“See ya later.”

-----

“I’ll give you one more chance to work here, alright?  Don’t screw it up,” the bar manager told Jun.

“Yes.  Thank you very much,” Jun bowed respectfully, going to serve her table.

“Have you gotten used to the teaching job, Yamaguchi-sensei?”

Jun froze, hearing a woman speak, “Pretty much.”

“Aren’t the high school students nowadays hard to deal with?” A man, in his late twenties, asked the familiar woman with round glasses.

Yankumi began shaking her head in disagreement, Kawashima replying, “Yep, exactly.  Kids nowadays are impossible.”

Jun interrupted them after limping over to their table, “Another bottle?” she asked, standing at the other end of the table from Yankumi and another man.

“But they’re cute once you get to know them,” Yankumi added, smiling.

Jun snorted, “Yamaguchi-sensei, Kawashima-sensei, Fujiyama-sensei, stop trying so hard for detectives.”

“You’re working here again?  What will your father say if he finds out?”

“It’s fine.  I’m not scared of him.”

“Shinohara-san, do you have a girlfriend?” Fujiyama asked the younger detective, ignoring Jun’s comment.

The detective replied, “Unfortunately, I don’t…”

“Really?” all three women began getting excited.

“I’m free,” Kawashima spoke first.

“Would you consider me as a candidate?” Fujiyama asked.

Yankumi, taken aback by the other two, spilled her drink.  “Oh, no!”

“Beer… Beer all over,” the older detective was drunk, so instead Shinohara jumped up to help clean the spill.

“Should I call him a cab?” Jun asked, her cellphone out of her pocket already.  “I’ll clean it up.”

“Shinohara-san, what do you look for in a woman?” Fujiyama questioned.

“Eh?”

“For example, between the three of us…” Kawashima tried explaining.

“Don’t hold back and tell us,” came Fujiyama’s voice.

The older detective jumped up, “Kumiko-san is my type!  Kumiko…”  He stumbled to where Yankumi was sitting.  “How about a kiss?”

Another male came into the picture, coming down the stairs quickly and pulling the older detective away from Yankumi.  “Don’t touch Ojou!”  The male shared a look with Yankumi, knowing one way or another he had done wrong.

“Ojou?” they all asked.

Jun recognized the new face from when Kuma stole the money a few days ago, and they were at the bridge.

“Um…  Ojoudan (your joke) should stop, right?” The tall male began backing away from the older detective.

“That’s right, Kashiwagi-san.  Your joke was a little much,” Yankumi spoke.  She turned to the others, “Wasn’t it?”

“Kashiwagi, sit down!” Shinohara spoke, pulling his colleague to sit down.

“Hey, who are you?  Who?  Who was he?” Kashiwagi asked as the tall male walked off.

“Scary!” Kawashima spoke.

“But he was cool, wasn’t he?” Fujiyama asked.

“Hey, was he someone you know?” Kawashima asked Yankumi.

“Nah, he’s nothin’…”

“Nothin’?” the two women asked.

“There’s a fight!” a man came in, announcing to the bar.

Jun was the first to go out, seeing Ara High uniforms.  She recognized a male standing behind the ones beating down a brown-haired male their age.  “Watanabe?”

“The police are here!”

“What are you guys doing?” Shinohara questioned, running after Watanabe and the other boys.

Yankumi and the other two females ran as far as the trash can where… Minami was laying?

“Minami!” Yankumi spoke, surprised.

Jun kneeled down, helping her friend up from the ground.

“You guys, run!”

Jun nodded, beginning to limp away quickly with Minami.

-----

“How did you get involved with Watanabe?” Jun questioned, the two now at her apartment.  “That girl I heard about from Uchi, is it because of her?  Minami, he’s dangerous.”

Minami winced as an alcohol pad was pressed into his face.  “I don’t want to talk about it, Jun-chan.”

“Fine, don’t talk about it.  But when you do need someone to talk to, come to me.”

“Alright.”

-----

The next morning, Jun walked into the teachers’ office, only to see the two detectives from the evening before.  She straightened out her skirt, walking forward to listen in on the conversation.

“A gang fight?” Sawatari repeated.  “You say the student goes to our school?”

“The details are still unclear, but I think the one being beaten might be a student here.”

“Eh?  How pitiful!” Yankumi jumped up from her chair.  “Our student is the victim?”

Oh, Kami-sama, please help me with this teacher.  Jun spoke in her thoughts.

“Poor thing, right?” Yankumi asked the others.

Washio, the slimeball teacher, whispered to Sawatari, “He might be a 3-D student.”

“Ah, it could be.  How pitiful.”

“Even if he’s the victim, the fact that he was involved in a fight is a problem.”  Sawatari began going off on Yankumi.  “If he was a wholesome student, he wouldn’t have been out downtown at night and gotten involved in a fight!”

“That’s normal for today’s students,” Jun spoke, taking the words right out of Fujiyama’s mouth.  “You should know that just as well.”

“In order to prevent further incidents of this kind, we’d like to identify those that were involved,” Shinohara informed.

“If the victim is a student here, we’d like to talk to him.” Kashiwagi spoke next.

“I understand.  I’ll take care of it right away.”

“You understand, everyone?  If there’s a suspicious student, report him to me immediately.  Do you understand, Yamaguchi-sensei?”

“Huh?”

“The most suspicious kids are in 3-D, you know,” the slimeball told her.

“The gang members could also be from 3-D.”

“What do you mean?” Shinohara asked.

“They aren’t,” Jun interrupted.  “The gang members aren’t from this school.  It’s Watanabe from Ara High and his boys.”

“It’s embarrassing to admit, but… there is one class that’s totally worthless.”  Sawatari spoke, sitting down at his desk.

“Including their homeroom teacher,” Washio somewhat whispered.

“In that class there’s a student named Sawada Shin.  This kid is pure uncontrollable evil.  He was at Chuo High before, but he was expelled in his first year for hitting his homeroom teacher.  He transferred to our school after that.  So far, he hasn’t caused any trouble, but we think Sawada is the ringleader.”  Sawatari spoke.

“The ringleader?” Yankumi asked.

“I suspect that Sawada was the instigator of this incident, too.”

Jun left the room quickly, going to go find her friends.

-----

Jun listened on a conversation, hiding behind the wall up the steps from Sawada and Minami.

“Give up on that girl,” Sawada spoke first, the two leaning against the rails facing each other.

“Huh?” Minami asked.

“Got it?”

Minami stepped closer to Sawada, grabbing the collar of his shirt and pushing him even more against the railing.  “It’s none of your business.  Don’t ever tell me what to do again!”  He pulled his arm back, hitting Sawada square in the jaw.  “Got it, you bastard?”

“Minami!” Jun called, coming from her hiding spot.  “Sawada’s just trying to help you!”  She grabbed onto Minami’s shirt, not having much strength in her this day.  “Get off of Sawada, Minami!”

“Hey!” the P.E. teacher, Iwamoto-sensei, called to them.

-----

“What’s the reason for the fight, Jun?” Sawatari questioned his daughter, seeming as the two boys wouldn’t speak.  “Who struck first?”

“Hold on a minute,” Yankumi interrupted.  She turned toward her students, “You guys have a reason, right?”

“Fine, I get it.” Sawatari spoke.  “Sawada, if you don’t want to be expelled, you’d better write an apology letter.  Same for you, Jun.”

Sawada glared at the man before walking off.

“Why are you only punishing Sawada and Jun?” Yankumi questioned.

“You can tell from Minami’s face.  He’s badly beaten up.  That’s the proof that Sawada hit him.  And Jun?  She should have been in class.”

“But those are from…”  Yankumi stopped her words from coming out more.  “No, nevermind.”

“Minami, go to the nurse’s office.” Sawatari told the brown-haired male.

Minami nodded, walking off to go to Kawashima’s office.

“You’re punishing Jun because she was skipping?  Just that earned her an apology letter?  Minami was skipping as well,” Yankumi added.

“Yankumi, I thought we weren’t supposed to get him into more trouble.  Leave it alone,” Jun whispered to the other female.

“What was that?” Sawatari questioned.

“Nothing.”

-----

“Sawada!” Yankumi called.  “Jun!”

Jun sighed in frustration, snatching her bag from her desk, Sawada doing the same.  “We may as well both not come back.”

“You both aren’t going home, are you?” Yankumi questioned.

Jun nodded, “I am.”

“There’s no way I’ll write a letter of apology.” Sawada stated.

“You don’t care if you’re expelled?”

“I don’t care much anymore, Yankumi.”

“Expelled?” Kuma asked, surprised.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Sawada spoke.

“Maybe you don’t care, but I do.  And what about you guys?  Do you want to see your friends expelled?” Yankumi asked the others.

Jun winced at the word ‘friends’.

“Don’t just throw the word ‘friend’ around so lightly.” Sawada glared at the woman.  He turned back to Jun, wrapped Jun’s arm around his neck and placing his hand on her waist to help her up the stairs.

“What are you talking about?  A friend is a friend.”

Sawada ignored the woman.

“Just like you and Jun.  The two of you are friends, so that’s why you’re helping her.”

“We’re not friends.  I’m helping her because she can’t get up and down the stairs on her own.”

“Actually… I can.”

“Without hurting herself,” Sawada pointed out.

“Guilty.”

“Come on, Jun.  Let’s go.  I know you’re not writing an apology letter.”

“Actually…  He won’t leave it alone if I don’t write the apology letter, Sawada.  I’ll leave with you, but I’ll have to come back tomorrow to write the letter.”  Jun gave him a small smile, the boy shaking his head in defeat before helping her up the stairs.

“I’ll see you in the morning, Yankumi,” Jun assured, holding her bag tightly.

-----

After Sawada left her apartment, Jun was headed straight out the door.  She was off from work this evening, and was headed toward a nice neighborhood to visit with a shopkeeper or two.  Jun looked around, smiling to herself all the while.  She found ripe fruits that were still sitting out, an older lady sitting behind the stand waiting for customers.  It was only early evening, afterall.  Some shops closed early, but the market was entirely different.  Jun pulled money out from her pocket, and was disappointed at the empty pocket minus a few hundred yen.

“Would you like something, dear?” the old lady asked.

“Ah… No ma’am.  I’m sorry to waste your time.  The fruit looked so good, but I don’t have any money with me.  I left it at home, I think.” Jun backed away from the stand, bowing politely.  “I wish you well in your business, ma’am.” She started walking away in the opposite direction of which she appeared, walking the roads.  Soon after she left the fruit stand, she came up to a traditional Japanese home, a curved pathway for guests to walk on.  Jun, amazed by the appearance of this particular house, stopped walking when she saw a wooden sign on the door, reading “Oedo”.

A man appeared, a bandage wrapped around his head.  This man looked familiar to her, Jun realized, before he stepped up to her, “May I help you?”

“Ah-  No, I’m sorry.  I was just admiring the house.  It’s very nice.” Jun spoke politely, realizing that the man was too close for comfort.  “Is most of this part of town traditional?”

“Have we met somewhere before?” The man spoke in a harsh tone.

“Um, yes… But not officially.  I’m sorry to have disturbed you.  I’ll go now.”

An older man with graying hair stepped outside.  “Tetsu, who is this?” the man asked.

“I was just leav-“

“Would you like to come in to discuss the house layout…” the old man trailed off, seeing as they hadn’t officially greeted each other.

“Oh, I’m sorry.  I meant to introduce myself.  My name is Sawatari Jun,” Jun spoke.

“This is Tetsu, one of the young men working for me.  My name is Kuroda Ryuichiro,” the old male replied, smiling.  “You can come in, if you would like.  Have you eaten dinner yet?”

“Thank you, Kuroda-san.  I appreciate it, but I should really get back home.  My friend should be checking up on me soon.”  Jun bowed to the two older men, before turning away and walking the way she came.

“Come again, soon, and I’ll explain to you how this house is set up,” the old man called to her, chuckling as he spoke.

-----

Jun entered the room where she had to write the apology the next morning, getting started on writing.  She would rather spend most of her time with her idiotic classmates.  After a good twenty minutes of writing, the door slammed closed and it made Jun look up.  “I’ve gotten two pages done, Sawada.”

“Kuma convinced me to come.  I’m not writing, though.”  Sawada snatched the other chair back, sitting across from Jun.

“Puh-lease, you’ll write for Kuma.  You guys have been friends for a couple of years, right?”  Jun questioned.  She gave Sawada a small smile, still writing her apology letter.  Another twenty minutes, and Jun was finished.  She switched the packets used for apology letters with Sawada.

“What is this?”

“It has your name on it, so I guess it’s yours.”

“What?” Sawada snatched the packet from the table.  “Why did you-“

“Relax.  It’s my token of appreciation.  Though you seem heartless to everybody else, you sympathize with other people and help them when you see that they need it.  You’re probably the best person I associate myself with.  Or one of the best people,” Jun smiled, writing on the packet of paper.

“Thanks, I guess.”  Sawada read through the packet.  “So before I showed up, you already made the decision to write this for me?”

“Duh.  I don’t want you to be expelled.  I need my slave.”  She stuck her tongue out playfully, not expecting the male to actually grab her tongue.

“Stop it. I don’t like people sticking their tongues out at me.”  Sawada let go of her tongue, giving a small smile to her. “So you said you went to Chuo High before you came here?”

“I went to several schools before I came here, Sawada. But yes, I was in the same class with you at Chuo.”

Sawada put up one finger to get Jun to be quiet, receiving a phone call.  He answered it after looking at the person’s name, “What?”

Jun’s head snatched up, “Who is it?”

Sawada slowly placed the antenna on the inside of the cell phone. He had quite the serious look on his face.

“Minami?”

-----

“Minami!” Yankumi called, entering the classroom.  She looked around and didn’t spot him.  “Where’s Minami?”

The entire class avoided her eyes, unable to answer her.

“No one knows?”

“Watanabe from Ara High School called him out.” Kuma responded.  “So he left.”

“Called him out?”

Uchi was the next to answer, “His girlfriend was also dating Watanabe.”

“Then, Minami went to settle the matter.”

Noda replied to Yankumi, “Not exactly.  He went to kick his because he’s mad.”

“Kick his ?” Yankumi questioned.  “Where did he go?”

“Beats me.” Noda answered.

“You don’t have any idea?”

“This is bad… He’ll be beaten up for sure,” Kuma spoke, a worried look on his face.

“But there’s nothing we can do about it.” “He’s determined to go.” “We can’t help that,” was heard from several boys throughout the room.

“What’s this?” Yankumi spoke quietly. “‘There’s nothing we can do?’ ‘Let him go?’ That’s all you have to say? And you call yourselves friends?!  Why didn’t anyone go with Minami? Why did you let him go alone?”

“Do you know who Watanabe is?” Uchi questioned Yankumi.

“He’s the leader of Ara High.”

“I know who Watanabe is. Those are just excuses, Uchi. Kuma.” Jun spoke, entering the room.  “Minami… Minami went off on his own, but you guys are friends, right? You should have followed him. There’s not a whole lot of time for me over this way, so I’m going to catch up to Sawada. I know how Watanabe likes to hurt people near the river.”

“The river?” Yankumi asked, looking at her.

“Hai.” Jun replied, limping out of the classroom quickly.

“Oi, Jun, where are you going?” Uchi questioned. “Forget it,” he spoke, realizing the girl was ignoring him as she left out.

Yankumi soon left the classroom as well, “I’m going with her.”

-----

Jun had lost Yankumi a while ago, meeting up with Sawada to get Minami. “The supply yard, Sawada. Hurry.  I’ll meet you there.”

Sawada nodded, running off without the girl.

Jun proceeded as quickly as she could, looking back to see Yankumi.  She made it to the supply yard, watching as Sawada stepped into the process of Minami being beaten.

“Don’t hit my friend!” Sawada screamed at the boys of Ara High. He was soon punched in the face, but twisted another boy around to avoid being hit again. “You want to fight? Come on!”

Jun forced herself up and over the fence, her leg aching as she jumped to land on her feet.  “Watanabe! Leave those two alone. Now.”

“Ah- These dogs belong to you?” Watanabe questioned, chuckling as Sawada got beat down to the ground next to Minami.

“Come at me, Watanabe. One on one.” Jun spoke, readying her fists and getting into her fight stance. “Hurry up, dickhead.” Jun avoided a lazy punch, kicking Watanabe with her bad leg in response.  Soon, though, Watanabe got serious, and Jun could tell.  She looked over to see Watanabe’s boys finished with Sawada, and were coming after her.  Jun slid herself between Watanabe’s legs, flipping herself back onto her feet easily.  She was readying to fend herself from another attack, but couldn’t focus herself in time before a fist came flying and knocked her in her jaw.  Jun fell to the ground, landing more on her right side.  The pain coursed through her entire body, the female becoming cross-eyed and weak quicker than normal.

“That’s all you’ve got?  You’ve really let yourself go,” Watanabe taunted, bringing his foot up and stepping on Jun’s hand, cracks being heard from breaking bones.  “If you knew you were weak, then why did you come after me?”  He kept his foot on Jun’s hand as water splashed over all the high school students.

“What the hell are you doing?!” one boy screamed, turning around to face the newcomer.

The water woke Jun up a bit, the girl spotting Yankumi.  She couldn’t force herself to speak or anything, having a hard time holding her head up.

“Who the hell are you?!” Watanabe screamed at the mathematics teacher.

Yankumi held a barrel in her hands.  “Me?  I’m their homeroom teacher.”

“Yankumi…” Jun heard Minami say.

Jun watched as Yankumi through the barrel at Watanabe’s feet, Watanabe having to take a step back.  “She said she’s a teacher,” one of the boys spoke.

“Get lost!” Watanabe yelled at her.

“Sawada, Minami.  Take Jun and go.  Hurry up and go!”

“Stop your blabbing!” Watanabe attempted to order Yankumi.

“Urusai!”

Watanabe’s facial expression changed completely.

Jun attempted to push herself up with her right hand, holding her left hand close.

“I’m really pissed off right now.” Yankumi spoke to the Ara High students.

Watanabe shook his head as for an order for his boys to attack.  The first one walked up to Yankumi calmly.  “You, teacher, back off!” he yelled, grabbing the collar of Yankumi’s jersey.  Yankumi twisted the boy’s wrist and pushed him down on the ground.  The next one extended his arm to punch Yankumi straight in the face, but Yankumi punched him in his gut, the woman advancing forward.  She stepped on a steel pipe that the boy she just knocked down was attempting to grab.

“That’s a dangerous toy for a kid.” Yankumi stated harshly.  The boy let go of the pipe, and Yankumi continued walking forward to Watanabe.

“Are you gonna fight?” Watanabe asked.

“I’ll do anything to protect my students!” Yankumi responded.

Minami was still lying on the ground as Sawada sat up.  Jun kept her balance on her right hand, still attempting to push herself off the ground.

“You guys ready?!” Yankumi yelled. As she advanced, Watanabe and his remaining boys backed away, eventually running off.  She looked down at Sawada and Minami, then looked at Jun who was set off.

-----

Yankumi and three of her students sat on a hill, off the road somewhere.  She held bandages and alcohol pads at the current moment.  “So you knew…” Yankumi spoke to Sawada as Sawada tended to Jun’s injuries.  “That Minami’s girlfriend was dating two guys at once.  That’s why you two were fighting?”

“So what?” Sawada asked.

“You’re a good guy.” Yankumi looked at Sawada.

Jun continued cradling her hand, “Watanabe doesn’t care if he’s cheated on the girl a million times, he still gets upset when his girlfriend cheats.  I’ve fought the bastard before over my friend Kisa.”

“Yankumi!” several voices yelled. “Shin! Minami!”

Jun forced herself to turn, her body still aching from her recent falls.  She folded over out of laughter.  Jun had seen Uchi and Noda in hockey uniform pieces, Kuma trailing behind them with a mop in his hand, Noda holding something similar to it.

“You guys…” Yankumi spoke, standing up.

The boys continued running until Uchi tripped, Noda going to go help him stand back up and finished their run.

“You’re an idiot, Yankumi!” Uchi spoke, leaning over and out of breath.  He looked over at Jun, watching the girl laugh.

“Did you think that you could take them all yourself?” Noda questioned, breathing better than Uchi.

“You guys…”

“And Jun!” Uchi the girl, having caught his breath.  “Why the hell do you keep doing such dangerous stuff when you know you’re freaking injured?!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be able to fight for a while.  I think all the bones in my left hand are broke,” Jun spoke honestly, having controlled her laughter.

“Are late…” Yankumi finished her sentence.

“Shut up!” Uchi spoke before going to Jun and sitting on the other side of her.

“Shin… Isn’t this bad since you’re suspended?” Kuma asked worriedly.

“That doesn’t matter.” Shin responded, sliding a quick wink to Jun with a straight face.

Jun realized what Shin doing, keeping shut.

“You idiot!  What if you get expelled?” Minami questioned.

“Don’t worry!” Jun spoke, grinning at everyone.

“I’m not going to let it happen.  I’ll protect you guys no matter what,” Yankumi spoke.  “Even you, Jun.  I’m your teacher, you know.”

All six students looked at Yankumi before looking back down.

-----

“What on earth happened?” the Head Teacher questioned the next morning.  “Sawada and Jun disappear without finishing their apology letters, and you leave your class unsupervised!” he fussed at Yankumi.

“That’s… Actually, Sawada had a sudden stomachache, and Jun was running a fever.”

“A stomachache?  And my daughter, sick?” Sawatari scoffed.  “Yeah, right.”

“Eh, Head Teacher… I told you that I had recommended that he go to the hospital,” Kawashima interrupted, covering for Yankumi.  “And even though I gave Jun fever reducers, the burn on her leg is taking a toll on her.”

“Yamaguchi-sensei…  So then, I assume they wrote their letters, right?” Head Teacher changed back to the subject he had been on.

“Well, that’s…”

“That’s what?”

The door of the teacher’s office slammed open, Sawada walking forward with Jun trailing behind him.

“That’s them, themselves.  If you can’t answer, I’ll just ask them.  Is that all right?” Sawatari spoke loudly.  “Have you two written your apology letters?”

Sawada slammed his and Jun’s down on the desk. 

“We did them, so now you can shut the hell up, right?” Jun questioned her father.

“My, you’ve written quite a lot…” Sawatari continued on, knowing that Sawada had been giving him a harsh look before turning away and helping Jun walk more comfortably.  He stayed on her right side, not wanting to bump her left arm on anything.

-----

Kuma shared his food with Jun, the girl munching away happily at the onigiri in her hand.

Yankumi walked into the classroom, going to her podium.  “Good morning,” she spoke a first time.  After a moment of silence, “Good morning!”

“Hey,” Uchi responded.

Minami nodded in recognition, not speaking very well because of his badly beaten and bruised face.

“Morning,” Noda spoke.

Kuma semi-saluted her, “Good morning.”

“Morning!” Jun spoke, filled with food.

“Kawaii!!” the pair of twins with green and black striped shirts on exclaimed.

 

Oh goodness, not again…