Episode Three
Gokusen 3 Remake
Episode Three
I waited for my favorite six so we could walk to school together. I was happy. No, more than happy. I was ecstatic. Not only was my ankle all healed and I could finally walk without any pain, Yamato and Ren agreed to being co-heads of Akadou. Now instead of being separate gangs of three and four, we were a gang of seven.
"Heza!"
I turned to see the boys walking up to me in a line. On the right (from my POV) were Ichi and Kura; on the left were Kamiya and Honjo with Yamato and Ren in the middle. I jogged up to them.
"Ohayou," I walked in between Yamato and Ren completing the line, "I'm so tired."
"When aren't you tired," Ren ruffled my hair.
I swatted his hand away, "when I'm sleeping," Yamato laughed, "I'm being serious."
He didn't say anything, but kept his smile.
"Ah, I know how you feel Heza. I'm feeling lazy today," Honjo stretched.
"Should we skip," Ren suggested.
Kura jumped up and down excitedly, "yeah, let's! Let's go to karaoke!"
"Karaoke again," I sighed, "can't we do something quiet while we skip so I can catch so z's?"
"Wouldn't that be a waste," a voice said behind us.
We turned to see who it was but no one was there. Were we hearing things? Suddenly something hit each of us in the back of the head.
"Good morning you guys!"
We groaned as we recognized the voice. We turned again to see Yamaguchi standing there all cheerful like she was every morning.
"Not going to class on such a perfect day for studying. How would you plead before the Sun God," she asked.
"Huh?"
You guys seem to be getting along great. I love it," she cheered.
"What is that," Kura looked at her like she was stupid, "do you have a problem?"
"Of course, I have no problem," she dramatically look off into the distance, "isn't getting along a beautiful thing?"
Yamato called her an idiot, and we started walking again. We started making some food suggestions when Yamaguchi pushed her way through sending me flying into Yamato. I quickly moved away as Yamaguchi turned to us.
"Don't be late! Your beloved beautiful teacher is waiting for you," she said before running off.
"Beloved," Ren asked in confusion.
Yamato laughed, "beautiful teacher?"
We all tilted our heads, "who?"
When we got to the classroom, we all moved our desks to the middle of the back. I started to rest my eyes when Kamiya hugged me from behind.
"I never noticed before, but Sai-chan is kawaii," he squealed.
"Get off," I said in a monotoned voice not opening my eyes.
Ignoring my comment, Kamiya hugged me closer to him, "did you ever notice Honjo?"
I opened my eyes to see Honjo shaking his head. He leaned towards me so our face were a few inches apart.
I heard Ren groan at how close the two boys were to his 'little sister', "leave her alone guys."
"Do you have a boyfriend Sai-chan," Honjo asked ignoring Ren.
I arched my eyebrow at him, "Sai-chan?"
"That's our nickname for you. Do you like it Sai-chan," Kamiya whispered in my ear.
His breath made my ear tickle, and it wasn't the 'laughing' tickle. It was the 'itchy' tickle.
"Guys quit harassing Heza," Yamato demanded.
Honjo muttered apology before leaning back in his chair while Kamiya removed his arms from my person and went to his desk pouting.
"What about you Yamato," Kamiya asked, "did you notice before how kawaii Sai-chan looked?"
"Yeah," Yamato answered like it was an obvious answer.
The boys jaws hit the floor, "nani?!"
I felt my face heat up.
"And to think we thought you weren't normal," Honjo laughed.
"Yeah! Everytime we would go to hook-up parties, he wouldn't go," Kamiya explained.
The guys laughed, except Yamato, and then got on the subject of hook-up parties. I didn't pay any attention to them. I was still shocked by Yamato's answer.
'He thinks I'm cute,' my heart began to beat faster, 'he thinks I'm cute! Cute!'
"Heza, you okay over there," Ichi asked pulling me out of my thoughts.
I gasped realizing I had a big, goofy grin on my face. I quickly dropped it to a small smile and nodded. They shrugged and went back to their conversation. I sighed in relief.
'Thank you for making them so dense.'
Minutes later, Yamaguchi walked in with a hand-made bandana on and carrying a poster. She stuck the poster on the board before turning to us with a huge, determined smile. She explained that she wanted us to participate in next week's sports competition.
"I call it, Yankumi and 3-D's Win-at-Rugby Operation," she clapped.
"By the way, what does Yankumi mean," Kura asked.
"That's my nickname. Don't hold back, call me that."
The class started to ignore her going back to their fun and conversations. I read the poster further and noticed something.
"By the way," everyone went silent and turned to me, "the phrase is 'All for One, One for All'."
She looked at me in shock, "really?"
"Yeah. My mom was American so she would have me watch old American movies with her. One of them was The Three Musketeers," I explained.
Everyone laughed at her mistake as she looked at the poster in panic as if it was the end of the world. After recovering from her mistake, she tried to encourage us to get us pumped up for the sport's competition. Of course, no one liked it because it was too much work and not really '3-D', but she still told us to meet her out at the field. I'll admitted. I admire her determination to get us into school events.
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After school, we all decided to walk around. We ended up passing a tennis court where the girls from Momo High were practicing. Ren, Ichi, Kamiya, Kura and Honjo glued themselves to the fence as me and Yamato put our backs to them in embarrassment. I rolled my eyes at their stupidity.
'Yet they wonder why they don't have girlfriends.'
"A sports competition without girls is meaningless," Ren declared grabbing the fence.
"I want half the class to be girls," Ichi wished.
Kamiya agreed but said, "two-thirds girls wouldn't be bad either!"
"Three-thirds would be good, too," Kura countered.
"That'd just be a girls' school," Yamato noted as the guys stupidly nodded in agreement with Kura.
"Why is our school only guys," Honjo whined getting the girls' attention.
I glared at him, "I'm not a guy."
Yamato grabbed the collar of my jacket to keep me from killing Honjo. One of the girls hit a ball over the fence. The boys stared at it frozen. A second later the boys began tripping over each other trying to get the ball. The girls began to back up in fright as they fought over the ball. Once the boys noticed the girls turned to run away, they tried to jump the fence, but the fence was to high. As they hanged on the fence, they called after the girls. When the girls didn't come back, they got down in disappointment.
"Let's go," Yamato said letting me go.
In frustration, Kura tried to throw the ball over the fence, but instead it hit the top of the fence. The ball bounced off the fence then bounced left and right before flying towards us. We moved out of the way. After the ball passed by me, we heard a crash. We slowly turned to see a blonde man on the ground rubbing his head where the ball hit him. Before the man saw us, we ran for it.
"That was close," I panted.
The guys nodded in agreement. We found a nearby drink machine and got a can drink. We kept walking trying to think of something to do. After a few gulps, I didn't want mine anymore.
"Does anyone want the rest," I asked holding up my drink.
"Wait, if I drink from that can, it would be like an indirect kiss from Sai-chan," Kamiya squealed clinging to Honjo, who nodded as Kura and Ichi laughed at them.
The two reached for the can, but Yamato grabbed it. He drank the rest and threw it away. Kura and Ichi looked at him in shock as Kamiya and Honjo froze with their hands out.
Yamato looked at them like nothing happened, "what?"
"Our indirect kiss," Kamiya and Honjo whined.
Ren rolled his eyes, "I wish you two would stop. It's pathetic."
I laughed, "oh yes and staring at girls through a fence is admirable. Totally boyfriend material."
"Shut up," he mumbled.
"Why are you getting on to us and not Yamato for having an indirect kiss with Sai-chan," Kamiya asked looking at Ren intently.
Kura, Ichi and Honjo joined Kamiya and stared at Ren waiting for him to answer.
"It's simple. I'd rather her date Yamato than you two," he simply stated, "Kura and Ichi are her brothers like me so I don't have to worry about them."
"Don't you just love it when people talk about you as if you're not there," I said to Yamato, but spoke loud enough so the others could hear me.
"Well would you want to date them," Ren argued.
"Of course not, but that doesn't mean I like to be talked about when I'm walking right beside you," I barked back.
We glared at each other before dramatically turning our heads from each other. The others watched us in amusement. Oh yeah, we were siblings. Maybe not by blood, but brother and sister all the same.
The stars were out by the time we reach the downtown area. Much to my frustration, we still didn't decide on what to do. I finally gave up and let the boys decide.
"Where shall we go," Kura asked excitedly.
Kamiya snapped his fingers, "shall we go to our usual place?"
"Let's go," Ren said making Kura jump more with excitement.
"These guys were studying until now," Honjo asked in awe as students flowed out of the doors of the Advanced Educational Seminar.
"Duh, it's a cram school. That's why we don't go," I laughed, "right Ichi?"
Ichi didn't answer. He was talking to some guy who just left the cram school.
"Takasugi?"
"Ichimura."
Ichi smiled, "man it's been a long time."
Takasugi looked Ichi up and down, "see ya," he walked up to his friends, "sorry."
"What, do you know someone from Akadou Academy," one of them asked.
"No, I don't know that guy," Ichi's face fell, "let's go."
Takasugi looked back at Ichi, but kept walking. Ichi's face fell more.
"What was that," Ren asked not sensing the atmosphere, "someone you know?"
Ichi nodded, "yeah."
"But man, he's got a pretty bad attitude," Kura yelled hoping the snob heard him.
"That uniform is from Aoshiba school, right," Yamato asked being the observant one.
"Huh, Aoshib...Aoshiba," Honjo asked looking at Yamato, who nodded, "isn't that where the really smart kids go?"
This made Ren more curious, "why do you know someone from there?"
"Well...," Ichi smiled, "you know, I went to Aoshiba for junior high."
We jumped back in shock, "huh?"
"Hey Ichi...were you actually smart," Kamiya hesitantly asked trying not to offend Ichi.
Ichi laughed at our reaction, "I guess. But I fell behind and couldn't go the high school there."
"But it's amazing just having been there," Honjo complemented.
"But you can't tell that now, can you," Ichi said doing one of his famous poses.
Honjo mocked his pose, "not like we can!"
We laughed and started walking again. Ichi fell behind as we talked about playing darts. I seemed to be the only one to notice and slowed down to walked beside him.
"You okay Ichi?"
"Un," he sighed, "just thinking."
"Don't worry about what that jerk said."
"I won't," he smiled, "hey Heza, do you like Yamato?"
"What," I blushed, "of course not! Quit trying to change the subject from you to me."
He laughed, "so you do like him."
"Shut up," he laughed harder, "stop making fun of me!"
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I was pissed. Pissed at every in' teacher at that school except Yamaguchi. When something bad happens, they point their fingers at us. First, Sawatari comes barging in our class suspecting us for messing up a picture of the Director of our school, and I'll admit that it probably was one of us. Second, he has the balls to say we were most likely responsible for the recent attack that were happening at night.
"Calm down Sai-chan," Kamiya said putting his arm around my shoulder, "you act like it hasn't happen before."
I moved my shoulder out from under his arm, "I know, but it still pisses me off."
"I agree with Sai-chan," Honjo said, "that damn Sawatari is always accusing us of doing stuff like that."
"Should I deck him once," Kura asked making laugh for the first time that day.
"Hey look there," Ren pointed to a takoyaki stand.
Our conversation was dropped as we ran over to the stand.
"Three takoyaki please."
The men behind the stand gave us our order. We paid then sat on the benches they had in front of the stand. Kamiya shared with Honjo while Ichi shared with Kura, and I shared with both Ren and Yamato.
"Yamaguchi...do you think she's still waiting for us," Kamiya wondered taking a bite.
Earlier when Yamaguchi defended us, again, against Sawatari, he say her poster for the sports competition. Of course, he said the competition had nothing to do with us which angered us. Thinking we were motivated, she told us to meet her out at the field again, but as always we didn't follow.
"She's really persistent," Honjo said with his mouth full.
"Maybe we should've gone to the practice for once," Ren said earning him some weird looks from us, "Yamaguchi has done a lot for me..."
Yamato paused, "well, that's true."
Getting up to leave, the two guys behind the stand called to us, "hey you guys. You're from Akadou Academy?"
We nodded.
The one with the mustache held out a takoyaki, "here's one on us. Take this with you."
We looked at each other in confusion. Ren told Kura to go get it. He hesitantly reached for it.
"Um thanks."
The man suddenly grabbed his arm making us all flinch, "listen carefully to what your teacher says."
"Okay."
He let go of Kura. We backed up a little before turning and running away. When we were a good distance away, we stopped.
"That was just weird," I said.
The guys nodded. We walked until we ended up in the downtown area again. Kura mentioned something about karaoke. The guys started complaining about Kura's voice.
"Gomen," Ichi called, "I'm heading home first."
Before we could say anything, he ran off.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Who knows."
I thought for a moment, "you don't think it has anything to do with that guy from last night. You know, the one from Aoshiba."
They shrugged.
"I'll go talk to him," Kura said before running after Ichi.
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I walked into the classroom to see Sawatari leaning over Ichi's desk. I walked out, went around and walked in through the back door. I moved my way through some of the guys and sat down at my desk which was inbetween Ren's and Yamato's.
"What's going on," I whispered to no one in particular.
Ren answered, "Ichi hit that Aoshiba guy."
"Eh? You mean the one from the other night."
"Yeah."
"What's the reason? Didn't you hear me Ichimura," Sawatari asked leaning closer to Ichi, "what is your reason for hitting a student from Aoshiba High School?"
"Ichimura, you have a reason, right? Tell us," Yamaguchi said wanting Ichi's side of the story.
"It was their bad," Kura began but Ichi stopped him.
"You guys probably started it, didn't you? There's no reason Aoshiba students would start anything with you," Yajima said before hiding behind Sawatari.
"Head teacher, I will have a good talk with him. Can you leave it at this for today," Yamaguchi requested then bowed.
"We'll have to consider a severe punishment for Ichimura," Sawatari said smugly before leaving with Yajima.
Yamaguchi turned to Ichi, "what happened? You're not the type to hit someone without a reason."
"Ichi didn't do anything wrong. Those Aoshiba bastards were getting all cocky...," Kura tried to explain, but Ichi stopped him again.
"Don't say anything unnecessary."
"Yeah, but...Ichi was their classmate in junior high," Kura explained to Yamaguchi, "even so, those guys were saying bad stuff."
"That doesn't matter," Ichi yelled standing up, "it doesn't matter, does it? I got upset and hit him. That's all," he sat back down, "I wonder if I should drop out of school."
We all looked at him in shock, "huh?"
"Ichimura," Yamaguchi exclaimed.
Ichi continued, "dropping out won't make a difference anyway. Our future won't amount to much anyway. Everyone probably thinks the same way," no one said anything so he continued with his point, "well, I guess we can pretty much picture it. We're different from Aoshiba students. We're always immediately suspected. In the end, we get pegged right away. Nothing's going to change, huh?"
"Why," Yamaguchi asked, "why do you have to compare yourselves against others? Whether you're labeled or not, aren't you pegging yourselves? It's not the world or the teachers, you're comparing yourselves against others! Then, you throw in the towel from the start, saying it's no use. Your lives aren't over at this point! It goes on and on after school is over! You can start over whenever you realize you need to."
Her words cut deep, and she was right. But that only made Ichi madder.
"Those are some pretty words," he stood and got in her face, "like some damn teacher would understand my feelings!"
He left. In the years I've known him, I've never seen him loose his cool like that. The next day he didn't come to school. I sat in my desk depressed. What if he did drop out of school? After school, Kura finally told us what happened.
"You need to tell Yamaguchi," I told him.
"No way," he argued, "why would I tell a teacher?"
"Because she believes in him," I explained, "you need to tell her so she doesn't think that her believing in him is a waste."
Kura sighed, "alright."
We went to the classroom to find Yamaguchi staring at Ichi's desk.
She looked up, "what's wrong guys?"
I pushed Kura forward.
"Ichi..," he began, "he hit that guy from Aoshiba for my sake. No matter what that guy said Ichi just took it. But...I got upset and got ready to hit him."
Yamaguchi nodded in understanding, "I see."
"Ichi...He's that kind of guy," Ren said softly.
"That's all I wanted to say. See ya," Kura said wanting to get out of there.
We started to leave, but Yamaguchi stopped us.
"You guys. You've got some good points, don't you?"
"Shut up," Kura yelled trying to hide a smile.
The next day Ichi still didn't show. Kura texted him saying we were waiting. I sighed, and Yamato put his arm around my shoulder in comfort. I was too upset to blush or even worry about it. I just wanted Ichi to come back to school and be with us. The door slid open, but sadly it wasn't Ichi. It was Isoge with his three friends, and they were wrapped up. They made their way to us and began talking to Ren and Yamato. They told us how they end up like that, and Ichi's reaction when he saw them.
"He said Takasugi," Ren asked.
Isoge nodded, "yeah."
"It was those Aoshiba bastards from before," Kura reminded us.
"Those Aoshiba guys, screwing around like that," Ren growled.
"Yamato, what should we do," Honjo asked, "are you just going to leave it like this?"
We turned to Yamato, who looked really scary at the moment.
"It's obvious, isn't it?"
Ren jumped up and left along with Yamato, and where are leaders go, we follow. We looked all over for Ichi and that Aoshiba bastard. Finally, we got word that they were in a warehouse behind Aoshiba. We ran all the way there, never stopping. When we got there, we saw seven Aoshiba students circling a beaten Ichi with metal pipes in their hands.
"Stop it," I shouted getting there attention.
"You guys," Ichi said weakly.
We picked up pieces of wood, pipes and anything else we could use as a weapon.
"You bastards," Yamato yelled, "you've treated our friends so nicely."
"I hope you're prepared," Ren threatened.
The Aoshiba students threw their weapons to the ground confusing us.
"If you want to hit us then hit us," Takasugi said, "but we'll run to the police. When we do, it's you that will be in trouble. You might all be expelled, huh? Maybe worse than expelled."
"Shut up," Kamiya demanded.
Honjo hit the ground with his weapon, "who cares about expulsion!"
"If that's the case, then we'll tell the police that you're behind the serial beatings, " Kura yelled getting yells in agreement.
The Aoshiba students laughed, "do what you want. But you know, I wonder who the world and the police will believe? Adults aren't in the habit of believing you guys, are they? No one will believe anything trash like you will say."
"Damn you!"
We went to hit them, but a voice stopped us like always.
"I'd believe it!"
We turned to see Yamaguchi. Walking towards us, she began to get in her serious mode.
Takasugi raised an eyebrow, "who are you?"
"Me? I'm their homeroom teacher," she simply stated.
"Huh?"
She walked in front of us so she was between us and the Aoshiba bastards, "don't do anything."
"Don't interfere," Yamato demanded.
She turned to us sharply, "you still don't understand, do you? If you start something here, you'll sink to the same level as these guys!"
"Same level...that hurts a bit," Takasugi said smugly.
She turned back to them then looked at the metal pipes on the ground, "are you elite students playing with such things?"
Takasugi sighed, "unlike these guys' fighting, we are cleaning up the world. If we continue like this, we'll be winners. But these guys have no value to society. These guys have no future."
"Of course, they do," Yamaguchi yelled, "true, society looks at these guys as the bottom of the barrel. They can't study and only cause problems. They are guys who, before even trying, quickly say "whatever" or "what a pain." But you know. Everyone, just like you, has lots of possibility. They just haven't taken that first step. They have the same future as you. Once they take that step, they can start to change!"
After a short pause, Yamato tossed his weapon to the ground followed by Ren and then myself. Everyone followed suit shocking the Aoshiba students. After hearing the last weapon hit the floor, Yamaguchi continued.
"To judge people's worth by their academic ability alone, isn't that the worse thing you can do as a human being," she asked, "no matter what sort of high and mighty reason you give, what you are doing is a full-fledged crime."
In panic, Takasugi picked up a metal pipe. He swung it at Yamaguchi, but she grabbed it.
"Guys like you who don't understand people's feelings or pain....have no right to determine people's worth," she pushed him to the ground, "you guys can start over too."
Takasugi got up and ran with his friends not far behind. We ran to Ichi. Ren and Yamato stood him up and supported him. I laughed a little when Yamato poked a scratch on Ichi's face making him flinch and Kura swat his hand away. We were all back where we belong, together.
"You got us worried," we turned our attention to Yamaguchi, "well done guys, for not starting anything."
"Someone stopped us like made, that's all," Yamato mumbled.
I nodded, "yeah, someone whose words cut deep."
She looked at us proudly, "that means you've made progress by one step. Don't forget. You guys can change and have lots of possibilities. You can make your own future. So have more confidence in yourselves. Right, Ichimura?"
On the way back to school, Ichi stopped us.
"Hey," we turned to him, "the sports competition, let's participate. I don't want to keep feeling bad like this. I don't want to give up before I even try. You don't know until you try."
"I'm in," Ren announced.
"Eh? You're in," Honjo joked.
"Me too," Kura jumped a little.
Kamiya looked at the sky, "I guess I'll do it too."
Everyone started to agree, "Me too!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
"Geez..," Yamato said sarcastically, "no choice, huh?"
I raised my hand, "even though I'm not aloud in the competition, I will cheer you guys on!"
"Nani?! Can you imagine Sai-chan in a cheerleader outfit," Kamiya went off to his own world.
"Oi! You ," I yelled going to attack him, but Ren beat me to it.
He put Kamiya in a head-lock. Kamiya started screaming while tapping Ren's arm. We all laughed as Ren let Kamiya go.
"Alright, let's do this," Yamaguchi cheered, "fight-ohhhh. Oh!"
I stayed by Yamaguchi as the guys played rugby. They were laughing and having a great time.
"That's the way," we cheered.
Ichi threw Yamaguchi the ball, "here you go, Yankumi."
She smiled at the ball until she realized, "you...just called me Yankumi."
"What about it," he laughed, "we can call you that as many times as you want."
We all agreed.
"Alright everyone," she pointed out to the distance, "we're going to race into the sunset! Let's go!"
"Huh?"
"Hurry up and come on," she encouraged.
"There's no sunset," Yamato laughed.
We smiled before running after Yankumi. I ran along side Ren. I looked around then looked at him.
"Hey Ren," I panted, "can I ask you something that's been bugging me?"
"Hai," he panted back.
"What you said the other day about how you wouldn't mind it if I dated Yamato, did you mean it?"
He stopped, "nani?"
I stopped and turned to him, "I'm serious. Did you mean it?"
He shrugged, "I guess. Why, you like him or something?"
"I'm not sure yet, but I think I do."
"Well when you figure it out, ask me again," he said before taking off.
I sighed and looked at the sky. Did I like Yamato and if I did, did he like me back?
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