Mikuru Takano's Story

The teacher had instructed them to do a paired activity that requires students to translate some proverbs into native Japanese. Ciel was paired with the guy who came in late: Misato Amane. Before starting, he asked her what part of England did she come from.

"I'm from the city of Carlisle, around Northwest." She replied without looking up from her textbook as she continued working on the given set of exercises. It's not like she found him annoying, it's just that she hasn't interacted much with other people let alone boys in real life before.

"Don't mind it too much, I'm quite used to people having that impression. Haha." Misato cheers Mikuru up. He glanced at all the other pairs who were either working silently or chatting with their partner. "Do I really seem like a bad guy?" He wondered at this realization. He turned back to his partner who still had her head bowed down. "It's all right, really. Plus there's also my last name to consider...so I can completely understand why." Misato leans his head back by his chair. "God, why must I be named after that place?"

Misato nodded. "I see. Well then, we'd better get started then. Hm... It's mentioning something about cherry blossoms and wind... That much I know for sure..." Misato seemed lost in thought and confused.
Mikuru blushed at his laugh. She looked up, praying to god that he didn't see. He seemed to be fine but she noticed he seemed sad because of his last name. Mikuru was saddened so she looked Misato in his eyes and said "Y-Your last name isn't bad... Even if it's after a b-bad place... You aren't a b-bad person... U-Um..." Mikuru could tell that he was either not listening or didn't understand her speech... She sighed and muttered to herself "Besides, I-I'm the worthless one..." with a hint of bitterness in her voice. Thinking he hadn't heard her, she pulled out her pencil and began to translate. The cherry blossoms flow deeply in the wind, gone are the petals along with the man's sin... 'So, it's a rhyme, huh?' Mikuru was still a little down from Misato not listening so she continued to work.

"Translations, huh." Kiro absentmindedly spun a ballpen in his hand with ease. He sighed. "Well, at least I'm paired with Ai, probably the only one who can see me in the place. Oh well." He had noticed then that people had come in- Aokigahara, a voluntary cleaner, their homeroom teacher, and another student named Misato.

"And Tadakatsu's still not here." He sighed to himself. "Where could that guy be anyway?" Then he stopped spinning his pen, sighing again. Lazily flipping through his book with a hand he just began translating mentally, gathering what knowledge he had of English and translating.

Running around clumsily trying to put on his clothes while also preparing for the rest of the day, Tadakatsu was only slowing himself down. “Okay, okay.” Tadakatsu spoke to himself. “This was yesterday's assignment. And this was... Actually, I have no clue what this is.” Shrugging his shoulders, the boy crumpled up the paper and threw it toward the trash bin without looking up. The paper didn't even come close to the trash bin and instead hit a pile of books stacked next to the boy's television. The books fell and scattered all over his room. “N-no way.” Tadakatsu began to lament as he reluctantly picked up the fallen books.

If you knew Tadakatsu, these books would seem like a strange thing for the idiotic boy to have. They're way too scientific that even I, the intelligent narrator, would have a hard time understanding a lot of them. They're books on different science theories ranging from common ones you probably know to things I'd never heard of. I guess it makes sense when you think about it. Oh, you don't think it does? Well I guess you'd have to know Tadakatsu a bit better to understand, so you'll probably learn later. Unlike that kid, I'm not really into spilling my guts on the tip of a hat. But anyway, let's get back to this idiot being late.

“All right. That should do it.” Tadakatsu concluded with a smile on his face. He looked around the floor for any more books that might have gotten away from him, but instead found a Polaroid picture face down on the floor. He bent down to pick up the picture, turning it around while getting back up from the ground. A strew of emotions could be seen on his face looking at the picture. Sadness, regret, and a bit of anger. Toward whom? Probably himself. All of these things kept Tadakatsu from really connecting with anyone.

Tadakatsu is a popular guy nowadays, but he doesn't think anything of it. He treats his relationships with others as nothing more than routine. And he's completely fine with that, unfortunately. Tadakatsu treats all his relationships as “face-value friendships”. What this means is that he is fine with hanging out with these people and is even happier to help them out, but that's just it. These relationships are just one-sided. Tadakatsu only gives, but never takes. So people think he is a great friend, which he might be and would be happy to hear anyone call him as such, but that's all it is. Tadakatsu may be a great friend to others, but he doesn't have anyone he can truly call a great friend. That's why these friendships are “face-value friendships”; they never reach beyond the surface.

“Okay, time to get to school, I suppose.” Shaking off the lingering emotions he had held a few moments ago, the boy moves forward. Tadakatsu picks up his bag from beside his bed and walks out into the living room. “Oi, Kei! Are you ready to go?” The only response Tadakatsu received was silence. “Um... Kei? Uh-oh.

You probably understand what happened, but this poor fool is still trying to piece it together. So the boy runs to the doorway to see a pair of shoes missing with a pair of slippers replacing them. Sighing to himself, Tadakatsu spoke. “So she left me behind, huh? How late am I, anywa-” Blankly staring at his watch, this boy began to feel his legs shake. “N-no waaayyyy!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, Tadakatsu jumped into this shoes and sprinted through the front door.

Keep it down you idiot! The neighbors are going to watch us closely again. Remember last time the neighbors avoided you to even the point of taking their garbage out at different times than you? We can't trouble Kei to mediate things for us everyday, you idiot!

Running down the stairs of the apartment building, Tadakatsu made it to the bike rack outside at a speed that would put the track team to shame. But there were visibly no bikes to be found. “Wait, don't tell me that Kei...” Tadakatsu shoved his hand into his pants pocket quickly, but couldn't find the key to his bike's padlock. “Kei!!!” The idiot screamed toward the sky.

“I guess there's no way around it,” Tadakatsu concluded while rolling up his sleeves, “Time to put my nickname, Mach-Speed-Machine to the test!” No one actually calls him that, by the way.

At School

Footsteps echoed throughout the halls as Tadakatsu approached the classroom. Sliding to a halt in front of the classroom door, the boy brashly pulls the door to the side. “Yo Teach', what's-,” Tadakatsu stopped mid-sentence seeing all the students working in pairs quietly, “Up?" He finished his sentence meekly. “Bad timing, huh?”

Miss Nanao jumped a bit at the sound of Tadakatsu's voice. "O-Oh, you surprised me..." She briefly looked through her list and then pointed him out. "Isogai-kun... Well, everyone's in pairs already but since some students are absent, I suppose group work is more than welcome. Why not get paired with... Aokigahara-kun and Takano-chan?" She then dragged Tadakatsu towards Mikuru's group. "Takano-chan, Aokigahara-kun, this is Tadakatsu Isogai-kun. He's going to be paired up with you two, okay?"
Mikuru looked up in surprise and saw yet another unfamiliar face. He too had wonderful eyes, she blushed and hid her face behind her hands, not wanting to be bullied outright. 'Please don't hate me, please don't hate me...' Mikuru thought over and over again in her mind.
Misato looked behind him and saw Mikuru hiding. 'That girl... What's wrong?' He then continued to work. 'Crap, I'm totally lost... Why did it have to be English?!'

"All right, Sensei!" Tadakatsu pulled up a chair enthusiastically and set it next to the two students he was now working with. "So it's Takano and Aokigahara, right? Nice to meet you. Well, formally meet, anyway. I'm Tadakatsu Isogai, by the way. Try not to be intimidated by my mad academic skills and hip slang." Joking, Tadakatsu pulled out his notebook to begin working. "Actually, what subject are we in right now?" He looked over onto Takano's paper to see English words translated to Japanese. Damn, I suck at English! Why did I have to come in this period?! Scratching his head nervously, Tadakatsu began to think to himself. It's fine, all you have to do is make it so you don't look like an idiot. Easy enough, right? Now translate the next one to show your worth to this group!

"Don't worry guys, I got this one!" Tadakatsu spoke hastily and began before either of them could argue. Skimming over the phrase multiple times, the boy spoke up. "Yes, right here! I have the answer. Speaking as if he were on a game show, Tadakatsu cleared his throat to answer. "Yes, we're going with, He that slips of many farts, thinks of buns." This saying then traveled through Tadakatsu's brain after he had already said it aloud. “Wait! Let me contract that statement! I meant to say... uh...” Tadakatsu began to reread the English statement. “I got it! It says, He that sips of many arts, drinks of none. And that's our final answer!” Satisfied with himself, Tadakatsu spoke. “I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.”

Ciel was startled a bit by the sudden appearance of a student. He had just arrived to this class while everyone was in the middle of working already. She was used to seeing latecomers but 30 minutes late for the first subject seems a bit too much, at least for her. She shrugged it off and continued working. She turned to her partner Amane. "I'm nearly done with the first five questions. If you want, you can already start with the other half of the activity." She suggested this to him. It is a group effort after all.

"I'm spacing out again like Kiro..." Misato realized as his partner suddenly fell silent. He glanced back at her and muttered a quick apology. "Oh, I'm sorry. I kind of lost it for a second." He glanced over at her progress so far, they were pretty good. "I guess, I'll start working on this part then." Misato settled down to work, his pen rapidly jotting down answers as fast as he could. He only stopped for a moment to rub his forehead. Truth be told, he was feeling a little sleepy due to having spent more time working than usual. He took out a pack of peppermints from his pocket and ate one. He felt less sleepy when he has something in his mouth. He raised it up and offered one to Mikuru but saw that her attention is somewhere else. She had her hands raised to her face like she was avoiding eye contact with somebody. He turned around and saw another male student, assigned to their group. "Whoah, I was feeling so sleepy, I didn't hear him come in." His eyes darted back and forth from Mikuru to Tadakatsu, the other student assigned to their group. "What's up?" He greeted.

Apparently lunch wasn't for another hour. So the staff felt it good to let Billie-Jean go to class. Not trusting BJ to go alone they had the dean escorted her to the English classroom fourth minutes into the lesson. The dean kept a firm grip on her arm. As they neared the classroom the dean stopped her in front of the door, turning to look at Billie-Jean. He spoke in a cold voice.



"Now you listen to me and listen to me good. Our school has maintained a good reputation for fifth-teen long years. We don't need some rebel American teen destroying that for us! Got it! You are only in this school because you were recommended to us. For whatever reason the Shi international dancing company would back up a upstart like you I don't know, and frankly I don't care. My job is to keep this school safe, so you will act like a proper student of this school and follow the rules or you won't go here anymore." The message was delivered with a hard grip on her arm and a mean glare.

"I understand sir." Billie-Jean replied in accented Japanese.

The dean nodded at her then opening the door to the classroom. Everyone in the English class gave her weird looks. The dean let go of her arm to shove her in a nearby seat. He then went to speak to the instructor in hushed tones. The instructor gave her wide eyes.

The dean left but not before glaring at her one last time. Billie-Jean rubbed her bruising arm while sulking. The instructor introduced her to the class.

"Class this another one of your classmates Billie-Jean a transfer from America."

Mikuru stared at Tadakatsu. She put her hands down from her face after deciding he was a nice guy. Upon hearing him correct himself, Mikuru felt herself giggle and then laugh. She then stopped herself. "I-I'm sorry... I-It's just... that fi-first expression..." She giggled again before shaking her head and writing down his statement. The poem became The cherry blossoms flow deeply in the wind, gone are the petals along with the man's sin... He that sips of many arts, drinks from none... Mikuru stared at the paper "L-Let's see..." After reviewing through the poem, she could already decode the whole thing. There were 8 lines in total But she wanted it to be a team effort. "I-Isogai-san...?" When he turned to look at her, she flinched a bit and blushed. "U-Um... I-I think you sh-should take over the nex-xt line too... I-I think you're s-smart and would be g-good at it..." She smiled warmly at Tadakatsu, wanting to make a good first impression.
Misato looked at Ciel and said "Um, sure..." He looked over at the first half of the poem. "Damn, this is amazing! I guess it's no surprise that you were able to translate it this quickly. Uh, I got some of it done already. Mind checking to see if I'm on track?" He shakily laughed and handed Ciel his paperwork, hoping that he was somewhat close. Though he didn't seem to think so.

Miss Nanao said "Well, you and Isogai-kun are the two late students. So I'm going to have to assign you to an already existing pair... You can have Amane-kun and Faye-chan. I hope you get along~" Miss Nanao put Billie-Jean alongside Misato and Ciel. Misato waved hello at her. "Did you nearly get lost too?" he asked.
Mikuru was curious about Billie-Jean. 'I wonder how many other students will show up late...?' Mikuru sighed and looked at Tadakatsu, still waiting for his answer on doing the next line.

"You're on the right track, it's just that monkey translates to saru, in this case, the proverb 'Even monkeys fall from trees' is translated as Saru mo ki kara ochiru." Ciel guides her assigned partner in his part. She assists him as much as he could but even Ciel, a foreigner, is still unfamiliar with much of the proverbs she encounters in this class. Another student was assigned to their little group and judging by her looks, she was also a foreigner.

"And I'm done." Misato stretched his arms after that declaration. He handed his part to Mikuru. "Here, I translated the second part. The translation read "Kisetsu wa meguri hana wa saite from the flowers bloomed and seasons changed. "I hope I got it correctly." Misato implored as he laid his head on his crossed arms by the desk.

(OOC: Sorry I haven't been writing much, I have like two projects going on right now at school...)

"Here you go." Ai gave the girl a relief filled smile as she handed her a pencil. Taking it and mumbling a thanks Ai scurried to her seat just in time to see the teacher come in. When Ai realized that they'd have to give introductions a nervous shivering began. Holding her hand in front of her face Ai wasn't surprised to find that she was shaking like a mad person, she wasn't much of a public speaker, not to mention her stage fright. When it came time for her to introduce herself she stood up and shakily said, "Uh, h-hi, my name's Ai Mochizuki. I moved here when I was 7 and I've been going to Crescent ever since I started high school..."

Quickly sitting back down Ai sighed with relief that the spotlight was off her. She could tell her cheeks were still red and clasping her hands together she tried to stop the shaking. The girl had been dozing off when she heard the teacher announce that she'd be assigning the students into pairs to work. Ai instantly felt dread pool at the bottom of her stomach, whenever she got put in a group it was always filled with snobs who made her do all the work. She'd pretty much excepted her horrible fate of doing a whole assignment by herself when she heard the teacher say, "Kanato-kun will be with Mochizuki-chan and Aokigahara-kun, you can get Takano-chan. Work hard you guys~" Ai couldn't believe it, had she really gotten lucky? Grinning, Ai grabbed her things and walked over to the desk next to Kiro. Sitting down Ai smiled happily up at the boy and said, "Well, looks like you're stuck with me." Looking down at her paper Ai frowned and once again looked up at the boy, "Wait, what exactly are we doing?" Turning red yet again Ai hoped that Kiro had been paying attention when the teacher was talking.

Ai jumped about five feet in the air when a boy came running in the room yelling, “Yo Teach', what's up?" The sudden noise had startled the girl and once again her shaking started. Sighing and holding one of her hands up for Kiro to see, Ai smiled sheepishly, "I'm such a scaredy cat."

Misato nodded. "Ah, thanks, Ciel~" he smiled and then turned to the new girl. "How about it? Need some help?"
Mikuru said "Y-Yes... that's correct... U-Um... W-We're almost done with the assignm-ment..." Mikuru trailed off as she wondered what she should do after class. Or even during lunch. She then looked up. "U-Um... I-If it's not any trouble for either of y-you... C-Could I hang ou-out with you during lunch t-today...? I-I w-w-want t-to b-b-be f-frien-nds wi-with y-you b-b-both..." Her voice got really quiet during her last sentence. She had never gotten the courage to ask someone if she could join them for lunch, let alone a guy. She had really hoped they would answer yes.

The day had been going straight to hell she had first been late then yelled at by staff. But it was now looking up! People wanted to be her friend! Her! The weird girl with druggies for parents!

Billie-Jean had to think hard to control her mouth to not hurt her new classmates. She tried giving a smile and hoped it reached her eyes. "I'd love that...um both yea! I would like help with my work and...um to hang out during lunch."

After a split descison BJ tacked on. "Um..i'm not good with communicating to others...so if I like..say something rude. Just hit me ok? And you can call me BJ."

The two students helped her with the work, with their help the work load went by faster. As soon as she finished it was time for lunch.

"Ah..." Misato exclaimed upon hearing Mikuru's offer to hang out during lunch later on. "Sure, but you guys go ahead. I'll just head over to the faculty and get my compensation there. I'll catch up later." Misato gladly accepted the invitation.

"Lunch? I'm not too sure."Ciel thought for a bit. She didn't have anything to buy at the cafeteria since she always bring her own lunch. "I'm not heading out today. I'll be staying in." Ciel showed her boxed lunch. "If you want, you could buy your meal and just eat it here. The cafeteria will probably be crowded today. I'm 70% sure."

Mikuru felt a surge of happiness go through her. Aokigahara-san accepted her offer as did BJ-san, although she was a little disappointed that Ciel couldn't join them. 2 out of three wasn't bad though. "T-Thank you all so much..." Mikuru showed off her rare smile. It was wide and happy.
Misato looked over at BJ's work. "How the hell do you have more done than I do?! Augh, whatever..." He then scanned over the work. "I think you're pretty good... There's just one thing though, usoda means liar. So try to implement that in."

She thanked Misato for pointing out the mistake. Embrassed at her mistake BJ fixed it. She had studied the language for years so she could come to this school. They had one of the best dance teams in the world. It had been her goal to be on that team. For her to make a simple mistake at not translating one word was a HUGE embrassement.

Wasn't she an English speaker first? Shouldn't this be easy for her?

Pushing those thoughts away and turned to Mikuru and Misato. "So what's lunch like here? The last school I went to didn't provide lunch." She returned Mikuru's smile with one of her own.

Mikuru softly smiled and said "W-Well, there's less fried t-things unless you want tempura. T-There's also a huge courtyard to eat instead o-of in a cafeteria... B-But the people are the s-same. S-So there's that..." Mikuru felt herself getting embarrassed. She had never helped anyone out this much before. Mostly, people would demand to be taken places. She smiled and said "I-I'll take you t-to where I usually e-eat..."

Mikuru nodded and said "S-Sure... I-I'll take you to w-where I usually eat..." After a few minutes of walking, Mikuru and BJ made it to the school rooftop. "U-Um... I'll s-share my lunch with you... I-If that's o-okay..." Mikuru fiddled with a lock of boyishly short hair. She was nervous.

BJ was astonished with the progress she was making! Years of no friends to speak of and now she has a friend already! Who knew being nice got her a friend. Hopefully her mouth won't get her in trouble now. She had never thought someone would offer to share a meal with her. Her own parents where stingy with food.

"Sure i'd love that!!!" BJ said looking at the cute bento box Mikuru had. It was so cute and girly BJ would never dream of owning something like that. Well...only if it had rainbows on it.