58 and a Half Hours/September 1, 2016
Yuu turned to look at the clock in the dimly lit classroom. It was nearing three in the afternoon; only slightly more than an hour before he'd be done for the day. Not that he was in a big hurry to leave, as the week of one on one tutoring had turned out much more pleasant than he had expected. The only reason this afternoon had been dragging on was because they were covering math, which was one of his weakest subjects.
At the beginning of the week, he had shown up as instructed, and met the school's lone academic teacher, Ms. Dianne Kuroi. No other students were there for early tutoring, and when Yuu asked about it, he found out he was the only person slated to be in the class with grade problems. Dianne had immediately tried cheering him up by putting her arm around his shoulder and assuring him that she'd help him through it.
Early on in the week, Yuu had realized that Dianne was a little touchy-feely in her body language. She'd get behind him and come in close when she wanted to show him something, or put her hand on his back when she showed him where he'd be sitting. It didn't help him that he thought she was really cute. Yuu's reactions meant that it didn't take long for her to become self-conscious of her contact, and quickly the pattern emerged that she would touch him in some way without thinking, he'd blush or have some other reaction, and then she would realize what she was doing and suddenly break contact, blushing herself.
As Yuu looked at the clock again and yawned, Dianne could see she was losing his attention. “How about we wrap it up a little early for the day?” she asked. “Yeah, that sounds good,” Yuu said, stretching. They chatted as they started packing up their things. “So if I'm remembering right, there's supposed to be fourteen other students in the class?” Yuu asked. “That should be correct; there are a few other students who have yet to complete registra-oh!”
Dianne jumped slightly as their hands brushed each other. After looking down for a moment, she looked up again at Yuu and blushed briefly, before going back to packing her things. “As I was saying, there are still a couple students who haven't yet finished their registration, so there's the possibility we might end up with fewer.”
Once finished, they began walking out of the classroom. As they got nearly to the door, one of Dianne's heels broke. She lurched forward as her reflexive attempt to catch herself backfired, and Yuu reached out to catch her fall.
They stared each other face to face for a long moment as Yuu held her in his arms. The tension in the air snapped, and before either of them knew what was happening they were kissing each other voraciously. Dianne was holding Yuu's shirt tightly in her fists by the front, as she attempted to regain her footing. Unable to find purchase with one shoe broken, she quickly kicked both of them off, her clumsy footwork accidentally dragging the two of them to her currently sparse desk.
Not sure whether or not the move was intentional, Yuu lifted Dianne slightly so she would be sitting on her desk, never breaking the kiss. Dianne's head swam, and, without thinking, she pulled a little harder on his shirt, causing the buttons to pop out of their holes. As his shirt came off, Yuu took that as an indication, reaching out and pulling on Dianne's blouse until it, too, popped open.
As the two continued to escalate, they were oblivious to the security camera watching the room from the back corner.
Yuu broke the silence as he and Dianne dressed themselves. “Are you alright?”
Dianne blushed and responded, “Really, I should be asking you that.” She closed her eyes. “What... what I did just now was wrong. In a moment of weakness, I took advantage of you.” Yuu looked at her earnestly and replied, “I don't feel that way.” Dianne looked over at Yuu with regret in her eyes, as he continued, “I mean, while this week hasn't been quite how I pictured I'd finish my summer vacation, I've enjoyed the time we've spent together. It seems you even found a way to make math tutoring fun,” Yuu smirked. “This is the first time I've ever really felt any kind of connection to one of my teachers before. And I'm not saying this because of what just happened. I genuinely like you. It'd be nice if that feeling could become something more.”
“But I'm your teacher, and...” Dianne tried to interject, before being cut off by the classroom door opening. At first all the two could see was a silhouette from the brightly lit hallway, which coalesced as their eyes adjusted into a girl no older than Yuu. Though she had a friendly smile on her face, she stepped into the classroom with an air of authority. Yuu squinted for a moment as his eyes adjusted before having a spark of recognition. “Nanami, is that you?” Yuu asked. “Wait, you know each other?” Dianne asked. “Yeah, we've had a couple of classes together each semester for the last couple of years,” Yuu answered. “Are you going to be a student here too?”
“So to speak,” Nanami said, adjusting her glasses. “Actually, I'm the school's owner.” Yuu thought for a moment. Itou Academy... Nanami Itou... he finally made the connection in his head. “Wow, uh... I don't know why I didn't make that connection sooner,” he said sheepishly.
Nanami pursed her lips and gave a quick 'Mhmm', before looking over at Dianne. “And as your boss, I must say, the school security cameras picked up something strange today.” All the color drained from Dianne's face. “Who can say what really happened? These cameras are at fixed positions and angles, and only capture video in 480p, but on the video feed it sure looks like our teacher molesting one of her students,” Nanami said calmly.
Dianne's shoulders started to shake, and Yuu started up angrily. “Hey, that's not fair!” Nanami looked right at Yuu, smiling. “Well... I guess I could keep it a secret. But in return, you are going to cooperate with me.”
Yuu scowled. “Why are you doing this? I thought you were really nice.” “Oh believe me, I haven't just been pretending to be nice to you in the past. It's just that I want some... assurance... that both of you will cooperate with me. Not that it's very likely you'd complain, I just like to have all my bases covered.” Without breaking his scowl, Yuu demanded, “Just what is it you want from me?”
“I want... a legacy,” Nanami responded. Yuu's scowl finally broke into confusion. “Let me explain. I want my branch of the Itou family carried on, to continue to grow and prosper with all of the wealth and power it has amassed. Obviously, I can't do that alone.”
“... are you saying you want my baby?” Yuu asked, torn between confusion and feeling off-put. The feeling was short lived though, as Nanami responded, “No, that's impossible.” She was clearly trying to hide her emotions, but there was a clear tinge of anger and regret in her voice. “No... I want you to join my family, take on my family name. You can have as many mistresses as you chose, as long as you have children, to carry on our house.”
“Let me get this straight. You basically want me to marry you, have children with someone else, and make sure those children get your last name?” Yuu asked incredulously. “And why me?”
Nanami organized her answer briefly in her head before responding. “More or less. Marriages of political convenience are fairly common in my family, and I'm hoping to set you up with some girls who can bring our particular branch of it more wealth and prestige. If you were married into my family, any children you had would be seen as legitimate heirs, as long as I was your head wife. As for your other question, I chose you because you and your friends are kind and earnest enough that I think any one of you could make it work. I chose you in particular out of a certain fondness.”
“Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is quite a convoluted plan” a new voice said from the hall. “You'd almost think it's one of mine.” A moment later, Minako stepped into the room with an impish look on her face. “Minako, what are you doing here?” Yuu asked, shocked. “I came to walk you home from school. I also wanted to scope the place out; I've been thinking it would be nice to start going to the same school as you. Now I definitely intend to.” Minako put on a perverted grin. “And I may have been watching you through the window.” “And who is this?” Nanami demanded, alarmed at this new turn. “This is my sister Minako,” Yuu answered.
“I must say, I'm pretty impressed, you studmuffin you,” Minako said teasingly. “It seems you've had secret admirers all over the place. Look, even teacher's hot for you.” With that, Dianne's composure finally broke down, as she fled the room, crying. Minako looked apologetic and opened her mouth to speak before being interrupted. “Just what is it you want?” Nanami demanded. Minako's expression switched from apologetic to stern. She turned to Yuu. “Go take care of her. I'll deal with her,” Minako said, first gesturing towards the door before gesturing at Nanami. Yuu ran out the door to try and catch up with Dianne.
“Now,” Minako started as she turned to face Nanami fully, “you're going to tell me exactly what it is you're doing here, or I'm gonna trainwreck your entire operation. Despite your threat earlier, I imagine that having a scandal such as a teacher sleeping with her student right off the bat would actually sink your little school.”
“You wouldn't dare!” Nanami said urgently. “Oh would I?” Minako retorted. “You just tried to blackmail my brother. As I see it, nothing's off the table in terms of what I'll do to protect him from you. I'd rather not hurt her; she seems quite nice, and she's definitely a victim in this. But if that's what it takes, I won't hesitate.”
Minako quietly hoped inside that Nanami wouldn't call her bluff; she wasn't sure Yuu would forgive her so easily if she wrecked that teacher's life. Meanwhile Nanami grasped for options, trying desperately to remember anything she could about Yuu's siblings besides his oldest sister.
“You're the sister that teases him all the time, right? I could claim you two are having an affair!” Nanami tried. A huge grin broke out on Minako's face for a moment, before she slowly started chuckling, which quickly evolved into almost hysterical laughter. “What? What's so funny?” Nanami asked, unnerved.
Minako stopped laughing but kept the grin. “Go ahead. Tell everybody,” she said. “You couldn't prove anything, and even if someone happened to believe you, it doesn't matter to me what anybody else thinks about me. Let people think I'm fucking my brother. I. Don't. Care!”
Nanami gritted her teeth as she tried to think of another angle to come from. Minako clearly read her and continued. “Face it, I'm the one holding all the cards. You have nothing you can blackmail me with. So start talking.”
Nanami stood motionless for a moment before slumping to her knees in defeat. “Alright, you win. I'll talk.” “Good. And make sure you cover everything, because frankly, from where I'm standing, your plan doesn't make a lot of sense to me,” Minako said flatly.
“Back when my parents were alive, there were two lessons they continually worked to instill into my sister and I. The first is pride in our heritage. They always had an anecdote ready about some great exploit of one or another of our ancestors. The second is that it is through family – by building on what you were given and then passing it on to your children – that you are able to amass lasting influence and wealth. Our family realized that generations ago, and since then we've grown into a clan, with a number of family branches.”
“Four years ago,” Nanami's voice cracked as she spoke, “my parents died in a car crash.” She took a moment to wipe her eyes before continuing. Minako's expression remained stern. “Fortunately for my sister and I, they practiced what they preached; we were left well off enough that we didn't have to go into foster care, and instead have been cared for by our attendants and staff since then.”
“Feeling the weight of responsibility on my shoulders, and wanting to maintain our status as the head family, I had our physician run every diagnostic test he could think of on me to make sure that, when the time came, I'd be able to have children and carry on the family line.” “That's a little... weird to be worrying about at this age,” Minako said. “I figured that if there was any problem, addressing it immediately would be more helpful than waiting until I was struggling to have a child to start addressing it. But what the doctor found...”
Nanami took another moment to compose herself. “... I have no eggs. And with the results from my genetic test, I was told it's likely that my sister has none as well. I was faced with knowing that the family line would end with us.”
“As I floundered around, trying to think of some way out of this, I struck on an idea. I had already decided that I would insist on getting my future husband to take my name. Then I thought that if then someone else married him, joining the family, then any child they had would be seen as a legitimate heir to the family. It's not unheard of for some families like mine to practice polygamy if problems like this occur. And if that person also managed to bring wealth or prestige into the family? Then I've done my part in growing and passing on what I've been given.”
Minako had a look on her face like something crazy had just crawled in her ear. “You could just adopt, you know? That ever occur to you? Both of my grandmas and one of my best friends are adopted, it's not like there's anything wrong with it.”
Nanami closed her eyes and shook her head. “They wouldn't be seen by the rest of the family as a legitimate heir.” “Uh-huh,” Minako responded, nonplussed. “I began the planning stages of building this school, and chose your brother to be the center of it; I admit, it's because I had a pretty big crush on him at the time. Once I hit high school, the time felt right to act. Construction began on this building about a year ago, and once finished I went through the process of screening staff and potential students. I contacted the most highly recommended psychologist in the world, emailed her my criteria, and had her begin the process of selecting faculty and students who had a strong likelihood of being compatible with Yuu. As you can see, her selection for the main teacher has already paid off, so to speak.”
“And why include the teachers on this?” Minako asked. “Because unless they're in on it, there's no way I could manage this without people asking me some awkward, so to speak, questions. After all, polygamy is still technically illegal.” “In other words,” Minako said, “you planned to blackmail everyone.”
Minako stared sternly at Nanami for a moment. “I think we're done here. Too bad about your school though, but I'd be surprised if anybody comes in on Tuesday.” With that, Minako turned and left.
Yuu caught up with Dianne by her car in the parking lot. “Oh god, I'm one of those teachers!” she sobbed. Yuu reached out to give her a hug. As he caught her, she begun to turn, as if to sob into his chest, before thinking better of it and pulling away. “I- I'm sorry I let things get out of hand,” Yuu stammered, looking at the ground. “I never meant for you to get hurt.”
Dianne wiped a tear from her eye. “No, no, it's my fault, I... I'm supposed to be the responsible one. Whenever I've watched those reports on other teachers molesting their students, I always thought to myself, 'How could they be so selfish? How could they put their own personal desires above the well-being of their students?' And now I've gone and done the exact same thing! So I'm a hypocrite to top it all off, too...”
“Listen. My only regret about what just happened is that I've hurt you. And I know for a fact that what my sister said was not supposed to be a jab at you. If... if it's what you'd prefer, we can just pretend this never happened,” Yuu said, apologetically. “But what about Nanami?” Dianne asked, worried. “Don't worry about that. If I know my sister, she's currently putting Nanami in her place.”
“Even so, there's good reason what I did to you is illegal,” Dianne continued sadly. “I've abused my position of authority over you, and I've ruined your understanding of what a healthy relationship is...” As soon as Dianne finished her sentence, Yuu suddenly burst out laughing. New tears welled up in Dianne's eyes, before Yuu mastered himself and explained. “I'm sorry, I really am. But if I have a messed up view of relationships, trust me, this isn't what did it. This is easily one of the most normal things I've done all summer.”
Right then, Yuu caught sight of Minako strolling out to towards them with an armful of manila folders. When she arrived at Dianne's car, Yuu asked, “I take it you've taken care of Nanami?” “Yeah, she's not going to be blackmailing either of you now,” Minako said, before breaking out into a wide smile. “And I took a little detour into the administrative office on my way out. I've got the files of the other students who were starting here Tuesday, we've just got to give them a call and let them know that school's been canceled! School's out for-ever!” She sung the last sentence triumphantly.
“Before we do anything else...” Yuu started, before turning back to Dianne. “I want to convince you that everything's alright and you have no reason to get down on yourself.” “Yeah, I'm not mad or anything, I'm totally fine sharing him,” Minako said matter of factly. “Wait, what?” Dianne asked, suddenly perplexed. “Like I said, this is one of the most normal things I've done all summer,” Yuu said. “You don't have to worry about this getting out. I won't tell, Minako won't tell, and it sounds like she's gotten Nanami to be quiet about it too. We can destroy the security footage.” “Already done!” Minako said. “See, we've got that base covered. And I don't want you telling yourself that you abused or molested me. I'm just as responsible for what happened, if not more so.” “From what she told me,” Minako interjected, “you were specifically chosen to be his teacher because some psychologist predicted this would happen. Nanami wanted to use it as leverage to make sure you would cooperate with her scheme.”
“Well there you have it then,” Yuu said, “it's not your fault. So I don't want you beating yourself up over it.”
“I'm still culpable,” Dianne said sadly. “I could've said no at any time...” Yuu softened his tone as well as he could to try and help. “Look at it this way. You were being set up to fail, and you didn't even know it. Yes, choice factors into it, and now that you know what's going on, you can choose not to let it happen again. And I won't be upset if that is the choice you make. I don't think any less of you for what's happened today. I also want to let you know that, if you did want to carry on a relationship with me? I still won't think any less of you. You are beautiful, and I don't mean just physically. What you have shown me, in the little time I've had to know you, is anything but selfish. And I don't want you beating yourself up for this. Okay?”
As Dianne stared at the ground, it didn't look like Yuu's speech helped much, but she nodded her head and whispered “Okay.” Yuu moved forward and hugged her once again. This time, instead of pulling away, Dianne let it linger as she regained her composure. “I don't know what I want to do about this,” Dianne said as the hug ended. Yuu looked at her with gentle eyes as he said, “It's okay. Take as much time as you need.”
Yuu turned to the school. “Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like both of you to come with me. I've got some unfinished business here.”
Nanami sat silently on the floor of the classroom, hunched over and hugging her legs to her chest. The tears had stopped coming, though she didn't feel any better. She didn't even hear the sound of approaching footsteps.
“Nanami,” Yuu said, firmly. She looked up before quickly wiping her eyes and climbing up to her feet. “Oh, hey. I was just... deciding what I should do with this building,” she said, trying but failing to cover up how she was feeling. Yuu looked around the room like he was thinking about uses for it, before saying offhandedly, “Well, it looks like it would make a pretty decent school.”
Nanami's face filled with shock, as Dianne gasped and Minako shouted “WHAT?!? You can't seriously be thinking about going along with her plan!” A small glimmer of hope entered Nanami's eyes before Yuu smothered it, saying, “Absolutely not. I am not okay with what you did here, Nanami. But, moving forward, I think the most good would come from classes starting here on Tuesday, as planned. If you want me to come here, though, there are a few demands you'll have to meet.” Nanami was clearly torn, but couldn't bring herself to make any kind of objections.
“First, we end this farce of 'a week of early tutoring'. Its pretty clear what the point of that was, and so there's really no point in us coming in tomorrow. Second, remember Valen? From school, she was in a few classes with us last year. She gets a seat here. You're also going to offer a seat to a girl named Naomi Yagami; I'm sure you can find her contact information, if you could get files about my sister and grandmother. And Minako gets to come too.”
“How old are you?” Nanami asked, looking at Minako. “Fourteen.” “I can't do that. I may have had my own plans with this place, but it still is a real school. You'd have to qualify to jump at least two grades to attend.” “Whatever, just schedule the tests then,” Minako said defiantly.
“Finally, we're going to make some changes to the men's uniform. Blue and green are acceptable colors for the shirt, not just white, ditch the tie, and blue jeans can be substituted for slacks.” “I guess I can deal with that,” Nanami said. “Ok. Give us a call when you have that test scheduled,” Yuu said. “As soon as possible,” Minako finished. Yuu turned to Dianne. “I'll be seeing you here on Tuesday then, right?” he asked. Dianne nodded, slightly flustered. “Ok then. I'll see you Tuesday. Let's go, there's nothing more for us here today,” Yuu said. Dianne picked up her broken shoes, and the group turned to leave without even acknowledging Nanami.
As they walked home together, Minako turned to Yuu. “Now tell me, why did you agree to go to her school? Don't tell me you're seriously thinking about letting her get away with her blackmail attempt.” “No, I'm not, nor am I agreeing to cooperate with her plan, whatever it was.” “I'll make you a chart sometime, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the logic behind it,” Minako said dismissively. “Hah. Sounds like a plan by someone else I know,” Yuu said, smiling. “Hey!” Minako objected. “Your words, not mine,” Yuu said. “Anyhow, there are a couple reasons I agreed. For one thing, Mom's been pressuring me for over a month to come because she thinks it'll be good for me. Just how do you think she'd feel if she found out she was pushing me into basically a trap?” “Ok, that's a pretty good argument there,” Minako said. “Right, since we've disabled the trap, there's no reason to let Mom's feelings get hurt.”
“Second, it's not very likely that Dianne... Ms. Kuroi could find another teaching job before Tuesday. While I haven't asked, I think it's a very safe bet that she loves teaching because nobody goes into teaching for the money. Sure, they get paid decently on paper, but when you account all the overtime hours, it really doesn't balance out.” “That's right, student weeks are quite a bit longer than typical workweeks, aren't they?” Minako responded. “Yeah,” Yuu went on. “High school students do thirty hour weeks, so it's probably not out of the question that teachers usually put in forty hour weeks.” “Man, I remember how grouchy Mom was the one time she had to put in a forty hour week at work...” Minako shivered.
“So there's sparing Mom's feelings, there's saving Ms. Kuroi's job...” Minako said. “The last reason is to save the other students the trouble of last minute transfers. Speaking of which, you should probably return those files,” Yuu said. “Let's at least look over who you'll be going to school with,” Minako said. “After all, Nanami had a purpose in mind when they were recruited. If this psychologist she contacted is as good as she claims, I may just be holding the files of all your new girlfriends,” Minako said, teasing.
She pulled a small handful of files out of the stack at random and opened the first one as they walked. “Ami Funaki. Huh, looking at this address, looks like she's from a rich part of town.” Minako flipped to the next file, opening it. “Erina Hiramoto.” A spark of recognition struck Yuu. “I think I remember her. That's one of Nanami's friends, I think. I always saw her hanging around Nanami anyway.” Minako looked at the next file and skipped over it without opening it. “Ugh, Nanami Itou. Next! Oh hey, here's yours!” “Let me see!” Yuu said, as Minako moved on to the last file she'd pulled. “If you really want to, there's nothing interesting in these files besides contact information and registration forms. Oh hey, now here's a name! Cupcake Sugardust... Her parents had to have been hippies.”
“Given her plans, I'm probably the only guy in class...” Yuu said. “What, are you complaining?” Minako asked. “No, no... I just have a lot to process from today.”
Yuu answered the phone; the number wasn't on his contact list, but he had a feeling who it was. “Hello?” “Hello, this is Nanami. I'm sorry to bother you on this number, but someone stole all the student files, so I had to look your number up from last year's school directory.” “That's alright,” Yuu said. “I take it you've got Minako's tests scheduled?” he continued.
“Yes, tell her to be there at 1:30 in the afternoon. No notes are allowed, and she can only bring in a standard calculator, not a graphing or otherwise programmable one. I assume she has her own phone; the school secretary will be holding on to it while she takes the test. I also expect her to bring back all of the student files she stole.”
“I'll let her know,” Yuu answered.
“One more thing before I let you go; while Valen has accepted a seat in the classroom, Naomi Yagami has declined to attend.”
“Did she say why?” Yuu asked, surprised. “No, and I didn't ask either. Anyway, also let Minako know that if she's late, she'll automatically fail the test. Good night.”
With that, Nanami hung up. Yuu quickly made a contact in his phone for Nanami and added the number to it. After that, he fired off a text message to Naomi, then got up to find Minako and let her know about the test.
Next Entry: Saturday, September 3rd, 2016
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