The Golden Pear [YA - Featured]

♫~Notes 55~♫

 "Here is a hint, Kabuki."

The students looked at each other. "You mean the theater performance in the masks?"

"Yes." Rigaku nodded. "Kabuki is an ancient form of dance-drama, and do you know how it started?"

"Please, no pop-quiz! I fried my brain with math today," one student moaned, sprawling on the desk.

A giggle ran through the class.

"Alright, I shall not torture you." A slight smile returned into Rigaku's face, and the fierce flames from his eyes subdued. "Kabuki started in 1603 when Izumo no Okuni, a woman, performed a new style of dance-drama with a troupe of other women. However, despite it gained popularity, it was soon banned by the Tokugawa shogunate as the performers were available for prostitution."

Rigaku wrote on the board how Kabuki was spelled and how it was written in English. "If you know any pop culture, be assured, Kabuki had started this trend. Kabuki theaters often had many shops selling souvenirs and tea houses, providing refreshments and meals."

"Seriously?"

"I didn't know this!"

"As time went, Kabuki evolved, and soon only adult men could perform, including playing women. So you see, for Kagetsu to play Snow White isn't anything new." He placed the pen back at its place. "Unusual, yes. Not seen in the present. Sure. But take voice actors and actresses. How many actresses had voiced a male character? I'm sure you can find a great number of them."

"Well... but that's not the same."

"Yes, but still close enough. A woman plays the role of a man and vice-versa. The problem is with the humans seeing women as weak."

"What do you mean?"

A few girls scowled at him.

"I'm sure you have read a story where a woman takes man's clothes to protect the honor of her family, right?"

They nodded.

"Now this woman is seen as strong since she went into war and wielded a sword. However, imagine a different scenario where a young man disguises himself as a woman to protect his family."

Only girls had dreamy smiles as such a guy had to be gorgeous.

"Man in woman clothes are seen as weak, but a woman in man ones is deemed exceptionally strong. So, in conclusion, we can say women are seen as weak until they act like a man. It's stupid, and I can see you arguing with me. That's fine."

"And what do you think about women?" one guy asked.

Rigaku pushed up his glasses. "They kick men's butts by miles!"

"Come again?" Aiyoku asked the question everybody had. This was the first time he had heard his brother be so informal.

 "It means women are strong just like any other man. Take this, calling a woman weak is wrong since they've given birth to you. That is, even in modern society, a life-endangering situation. It can take hours to a whole day to give birth. It's the hardest ordeal a woman can go through."

Nobody noticed the watery gleam inside the brothers' eyes, as they thought about the words.

"I'm sure you have seen many jokes stating a man needs a little cold to be half-dead, but a woman can take care of him, clean the house, cook, deal with their kids, and have a cold at the same time."

He took his chin. "There is this theory that since men only hunted and beat each other with clubs they didn't develop an ability to be multitasking as women. They took care of cooking and children, picking berries, watching over the fire, or taking care of farming products."

He leaned against the whiteboard, pinching the root of his nose. "Now, can somebody remind me how we got from Locks Of Love to gender equality? I'm lost."

A quiet snicker filled the glass, and one girl answered, "It was because of trans."

"Oh, right. Let's wrap this up." He bounced off the wall. "We can talk about this for hours to no end, and we would never found a solution. Why? Because humans aren't a hive-mind race to share consciousness. We all are individuals with our own desires and dreams. The most important is to keep an open mind to new things, different angles, or events. Only then we can evolve and be the better version of us."

All the students clapped.

"Thank you for your patience. See you next time."

All the students left one by one, chatting and talking about what they had learned. Once the classroom was empty, Aiyoku approached his brother.

"You did a great job."

"I've just said what had to be said, nothing more."

"That too."

"Too?" Rigaku measured him a bit.

"You didn't snap."

The oldest Kamini pushed his glasses up, sorting all the papers they had and proceeded to clean the board. "Why would I snap?"

"When they asked about Ka..." Aiyoku let his sentence unfinished, observing a jerk in his brother's movements.

"Why should I allow some rumor to get under my skin?"

"True. But this is you."

Rigaku gave him a stern look. "Stop beating around the bush and get on with it."

Aiyoku smiled. "And here we are. My older brother, who didn't crack a smile in ten years, is joking, smiling, and getting angry. Don't think I missed that spark in your eyes."

Rigaku averted his wide eyes. A tint of red colored his cheeks.

"I like that," his brother added after a bit.

"You think it's alright?"

Aiyoku placed his hand on Rigaku's shoulder. "Yes. I'm happy to have the brother I remember so fondly back."

"Let's meet with Ka." Rigaku placed the cloth back next to the pen, and together they left the room.

He wanted to agree with his younger brother, but he wasn't sure. The good control over his emotions helped him to be a guide to so many students, and he gave an excellent example to others. Adults around him called him a perfect son. He was a dream for them, and they often compared their sons with him.

Not just once it resulted in said sons turning hostile towards him, bullying him, or making fun of him for every little thing they could find.