Study, Nikogaku, Study! - Prologueby Wind Chijmes"I WOULD LIVE TO STUDY, AND NOT STUDY TO LIVE!" Kawato-sensei beamed at his baseball club members, taking in their youthful, innocent faces. "Francis Bacon." "Bacon?" Sekikawa cocked his head. "Like pork?" "English philosopher and author!" Kawato-sensei continued blithely. "All of you have done the school proud by becoming our shining examples of sportsmen. So now, since all of you are in your senior year, I want you to graduate with pride and honour! And you're going to do that by – " "Screwing all the girls in the school!" Sekikawa cackled. When the others continued to stare at him after a disturbingly long moment, he faltered. "Joking – oi, I was joking!" "Passing your semester exams!" Ten pairs of eyes riveted on Kawato in varying degrees of horror and shock. "HELL NO!!!" "EH?!" Kawato-sensei protested. "Why not?! Remember! With dreams and courage, you can – " "Impossible." Everyone turned to look at the youth who spoke. Shinjo leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. "I haven't passed the exams since freshman year," he explained as calmly as if he were discussing the latest hair colour. "Fucking hell!" Sekikawa was almost doubled over in guffaws. Then he straightened and grinned at Shinjo. "Me too." He lifted his hand and high-fived the other youth. Kawato-sensei looked flustered. "EH?! But I told the Principal you'll definitely be able to pass!" "Wait," Aniya said suddenly, and deliberately, pronouncing each syllable like he was biting its head off. "You told him that we would pass? What are you smokin'?" "But you'll have to pass!" A feminine voice rang out abruptly. "All of you!" The buzz of bickering and babbling stopped, and they turned to look at Yagi as she stepped forward with a pained look on her face. "Because..." Yagi continued, hesitated, before blurting out, "The Principal said that if just one of you fail...the...the extra baseball practices will be replaced by tuition sessions!" "WHAT?!" A bellow of protesting yells and cries. "I told you, sensei," Yagi muttered, cringing from the commotion. "They're going to hate it." Kawato-sensei was quiet for a moment, before he turned to the girl with a knowing smile on his face, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yagi. They hated even baseball at first." Then, he took a deep breath, stalked to the centre of the room and peered down at the scowling faces of his baseball boys. "EVERYONE, SILENCE!" The boys did fall silent, even if they bristled with the indignation of it all. Kawato-sensei took a deep breath. "Baseball taught you teamwork. You were like scattered sand at first, now see how united all of you are. Baseball taught you discipline. Since the day the baseball club was reformed, all of you were never once late for school assembly. And you attend your classes – well, mostly. AND, baseball taught you to look forward to the future. This future – is VAST. Going to Koshien is a great dream, a noble, courageous dream. Yet it is only one dream. There are ten of you here! We have the space for one more dream – and that is to stand – at the graduation ceremony. Together. Laughing. United! Leaving no one behind when you ALL graduate from high school!" He finished with a dramatic sweep of his arms. The atmosphere around him seemed to cackle with electricity. The boys stared open-mouthed at Kawato-sensei, the resistance on their faces slowly but surely giving way to grudging acceptance, then inspired motivation when the idea of being able to graduate together – as a team – sank into their brains and began to make fuzzy sense. Mikoshiba broke into a wide smile. "I like that dream." "OKAY!" Kawato-sensei pumped a fist into the air. "HERE IS THE BATTLE STRATEGY! YAGI!" Nodding eagerly, Yagi whisked out a roll of paper and opened it with a flourish. She pinned it to the whiteboard and stepped aside to let the boys take a good look at it. Right at the top, in Kawato-sensei's dramatic handwriting, was written the words 'BATTLE STRATEGY', and below it a list of procedural steps and diagrams were scrawled all over the place. Number one. Study Camp. "Next week is revision week, so there are no actual lessons," Kawato-sensei informed his grudging listeners. "The Principal has given us special permission to hold a study camp." "Five days," Yagi explained. "Starting Monday. We'll break camp on Saturday morning. Here's the schedule." She pinned it on the board. 0800-1100 – Baseball. "That's insane," Imaoka looked ready to faint. "Are you fucking trying to kill us?!" Hiyama summed up their sentiments even more succinctly. Number two. Tactical formation. This time Yagi smiled at them. "Yep, tactical formation. You're only required to pass your semester grade average. Which means we just have to target the subjects that you're failing in order to pull up your average," she declared. The boys murmured among themselves, doubtful and suspicious. "You'll be separated into study groups according to your strengths and weaknesses!" Yagi announced. She fished out a sheaf of papers from her bag and browsed through them. "Now let's see here...Ok, I've got them. Wakana and Hiyama both failed Biology. Yufune failed Math. Okada failed Art. Hiratsuka failed Literature – " There was an eruption of manic chortling from the boys. "SHADDUP!" Hiratsuka roared at them, face scrunched up in noble indignation, rising to his full height and puffing out his chest. "It's a MANLY PURSUIT!" Seeing that the situation was about to degenerate into a mass brawl, Yagi continued hurriedly. "Imaoka failed Chemistry. Sekikawa and Shinjo, uhm, failed – everything but Modern Japanese." Even Yagi couldn't hide the incredulous expression from her face. "I told you," Shinjo shrugged. Beside him, Sekikawa yawned widely. "The only ones who passed everything are Mikoshiba and – " Yagi did a double-take at the grades she was looking at. " – Aniya!" "EHH?!" the others hollered and looked at Aniya like he had sprouted angel wings and a halo. Aniya Keiichi. Their gang leader. The most deviant, the most rebellious, the one who spearheaded their descent into the depths of sin, the – "What?" Aniya snorted. "I'm a natural genius." He didn't finish the rest of his self-glorification as he flung up his hands to ward off the baseball gloves and balls the rest hurled at him. "Except..." Yagi continued, a wry and withering look growing on her face. "Aniya failed Civics and Moral Education." "Che!" Aniya looked none the least bit concerned. "It's a non-examinable subject anyway." "The point is," Mikoshiba said above the din of the other boys laughing their asses off. He rounded on Aniya with a frown. "How is it even possible to fail Civics and Moral Education?" "I don't believe in lying about my morals," Aniya responded breezily, but his gaze darkened as it riveted on Mikoshiba. "Besides, my morals are fucking pure, that's what they are." "If you have any to speak of, that is." Mikoshiba looked thoroughly scandalised. "Let's – let's move on," Yagi blurted out. Number three. Peer-to-peer teaching. "THAT'S RIGHT!" Kawato-sensei announced. "In that way, you will be responsible for not just your own learning, but also that of your team mate's. It's the best and most useful way to study!" "Right!" Yagi echoed brightly. She tacked up another piece of paper on the board. "And we've divided you into pairs that we think will benefit you the most." The boys peered at the listed pairings. Mikoshiba-Shinjo. Okada-Hiratsuka. Aniya-Hiyama. Wakana-Yufune. Sekikawa-Imaoka. "No way, nyaa!" Yufune protested, the normally sweet expression on his face twisted in indignation. "I'm studying with Okada. Period!" "And I'm not studying with Yufune, period," Wakana declared, his gaze challenging anyone who dared to say anything otherwise. "'Nyaa nyaa nyaa' – I'll go fucking nuts." "But..." Yagi's face fell. "Kawato-sensei and I spent the whole night thinking up the study groups and..." None of the other boys really had the heart to tell her exactly what they thought of the study-group bullshit, so they settled for stony silence, glowering at one another because they couldn't do it to anyone else. Finally, when it seemed quite clear that no one was going to break the tensed silence, one of them stood up suddenly. It was Aniya, expression set in finality, and lips pressed in a grim line. "All right!" he said, cutting a path through everyone as he strode over to the board. He jacked a thumb at the BATTLE FORMATION chart. "This is a – good idea – " he said gruffly, not looking fully convinced of it himself. "However," he continued. "You just need to make some changes to the groupings." "Changes?" Yagi's eyes rounded. Aniya didn't reply. Instead, he took down the paper displaying the study groups, and began writing broadly on it. At length, when he was finally done, he pinned it up again. "Look here." He gestured to the newly-revised study groups, and all the boys obeyed. Hiratsuka-Imaoka. Shinjo-Sekikawa. Okada-Yufune. Wakana-Hiyama. Aniya-Mikoshiba. Kawato-sensei, Yagi and Mikoshiba responded at the same time. "What?!" "None of the groups makes sense!" Yagi protested. "And why are Aniya and I paired together?" Mikoshiba said, flustered and confused. "Shouldn't we be helping the others?" "We're the tutors," Aniya replied without missing a beat. "We'll go around and teach the others." He looked around at the rest of the team. "Shall we take a vote?" There was a certain curl to his lip and an undercurrent of warning to his tone that none of the other boys missed. Most of the boys raised their hands. Only Hiratsuka remained loyal to Yagi, and Imaoka to Hiratuska. And Mikoshiba, whose hands twitched at his lap as he hovered in indecision. Aniya waited, disturbingly patient as he stood there. "Captain?" was the only thing he said. Mikoshiba remained silent for a moment longer anyway, looking torn between loyalty to the team and his own good sense, until he finally looked up, apology written all over his face. "Sorry, Yagi. I agree with Aniya," he said reluctantly. Something akin to triumph passed fleeting across Aniya's face, but it was gone the moment he looked back at Yagi and Kawato-sensei. "Well. It's settled then." Yagi still looked dubious, her common sense clearly warring with the boy's logic. Yet before she could speak up again, Kawato-sensei beat her to it. "Very well," he said genially, looking not all worried. "If that is the formation that you are most comfortable with, then we shall stick to it." Grins broke out over the boys' faces. None of them was any bit more excited about studying right now than they were before the meeting started, but at least they weren't any more opposed to it. "And now," Kawato-sensei continued, his smile as scarily bright as ever. "I declare the study camp OPEN!" Prologue ~ Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5 ~ Epilogue ~ |