Some Teacher: Second Semester!

(6.5) Teacher time!

"Thanks for waiting for—uh . . . huh?" Asui was taken aback to see that there was already writing on the blackboard, that her classmates all had their notebooks out, that a stranger was standing where Nagisa-sensei normally stood, and that he had a piece of chalk in hand and a stern expression on his face while Nagisa-sensei stood meekly in the corner, with the roll book held tightly to his chest. They hadn't waited for her to show up before they started class like they always did. Was it this strange man's doing?

"Miss Asui, I assume?" the strange man said. "You are six minutes late. Do you have a note?"

"No?" she said. "Sorry I got held up, I was caught on the wrong side of a crime scene and had to find a different route here." He scoffed and leered at her.

"Do not lie to me, girl. I won't tolerate lying, nor will I tolerate tardiness," he said. "If you arrive late again, that's detention."

"Uh-huh . . . and who are you?" she asked, unimpressed.

"I am your teacher, Mr. Kenmura," he said. "Now, apologize to your classmates for wasting their time, and take your seat." Asui rolled her eyes and started heading to her seat without a word before Mr. Kenmura stopped her. "I believe I told you to bow your head and apologize." She just looked at him for a moment, confused, but he wasn't going to let her go.

Asui let out a frustrated sigh, and offered her classmates a shallow, half-hearted bow. "Thank you for being patient with me. I'll let you all get on with your lesson." She straightened up to go sit, but Mr. Kenmura stopped her again.

"That was neither a proper bow, nor an apology."

"Apologizing is against my philosophy," she said. "It is always better to express gratitude than guilt or shame."

"Talk back to me again and I will make you kneel down and kowtow with that apology," he snarled, glaring at her intensely while she met his eyes with a steel gaze of her own, unwilling to compromise her ideals or allow this man to shame her. "Do as I say, Miss Asui, and stop wasting everyone's time."

"I'm pretty sure it's you that's wasting everyone's time with your insistence on needlessly humiliating me in front of my classmates before continuing with the lesson."

"You've talked back to me for the last time!" Mr. Kenmura snapped. "Get down on your knees and and give a proper apology this time, or it's detention and extra homework for a week."

"Mr. Kenmura, don't you think you're being a bit harsh?" Nagisa-sensei interjected, trying to defend his student.

"Quiet!" he barked back. "You're just a teacher-in-training, you have no idea what it takes to keep delinquent brats like these in line. You've got to be strict, militant even! You've been far too soft on these good-for-nothings, that's why they're so disrespectful. Class will not resume until Miss Asui has given her classmates a proper apology for delaying the lesson, and apologized to me for her rude behavior as well. That'll teach her to respect her elders."

Asui realized then that there was nothing Nagisa-sensei could do. Just speaking up in her defense got him chewed out by this man who claimed to be their teacher. As their teacher-in-training, he didn't have any authority over Mr. Kenmura, and everyone in school, including the other teachers, administrators, and faculty, all hated class 5, so they were far more likely to turn a blind-eye to their suffering than they were to listen to Nagisa-sensei's grievances.

Asui slowly got down on her knees, assuming a kowtow pose. She lied all the time. She could make this asshole think that she'd compromised her ideals for him, she could make him think that she saw him as an authority figure. As long as she knew that she would never have any respect for this rotten man, she could lie and say that she did.