"Thanks for the time today Shinobu. I'll see you around!" Hopping around in joy, Mimiko waved at the violette. She was grateful for the time they had together after so long, this enthusiasm she once shared with the people around her had surfaced again.
"Take care Mimiko." Shinobu replied, waving back at the gleeful girl with a smile.
Adjusting her glasses, Mimiko flickered her gaze to both sides to make sure she got a clear view of her surroundings. With a look of approval on her face, the girl skipped down the hallway, humming a spontaneous melody.
Shinobu watched Mimiko disappear down the hallway. About time we catch up. Silence is a powerful weapon but it shouldn't be used against the one who controls its vitality.
"Is that who I think it is?!" A voice exclaimed.
This person sounded familiar. As Shinobu continued walking she turned around and saw the familiar figure running towards her.
"Ume! How are ya?"
"I'm great Shinobu! How's grad life? I've got a favor to ask."
"It's been great Ume, grad life's been great." Shinobu paused, thinking about the Agriculture club. They definitely missed her, the violette contributed so much to their success as a community driven by their passion. Since she was already at school for the time-being, she might as well stop by and see if she can help them with anything.
Ume smiled and crossed her arms, the girl with silky bangs with green highlights latched onto their ends knew Shinobu had something on her mind, as always.
"What is it Ume? I'd be glad to help." Shinobu responded, the purple-haired girl didn't mind lending her friends a hand, after this she's heading over to the Agriculture club and likewise they might need her assistance with the itineraries and resources for an upcoming roadshow.
"Per usual, Gyutaro is struggling with his subjects. Two of the major subjects actually and it's insanely worrying." Pouting, Ume looked away to hide her resentment towards her inability to provide Gyutaro with the help she needed. The girl felt bitter about having to ask others for help when she could always do it herself. Ume was embarrassed, she didn't want to admit it but from the looks of it, Shinobu already knew how she felt about the situation.
The violette could tell Ume was feeling a little insecure. She put on a calm demeanor and spoke. "I understand Ume, is Gyutaro still here in school?"
"Oh yeah he's in class. Follow me!" Ume grabbed Shinobu's hand and led her to Gyutaro's classroom. Even though school had already ended, there were still students loitering around in the hallway. Ume almost ran into the group standing in the middle of the hallway.
She hissed at them, annoyed at the fact that they already knew people were walking about outside the classrooms, standing around whilst yelling and laughing was so inconsiderate.
Once they got to Gyutaro's classroom, Ume hopped in front of an empty table nearby and shouted at the tired-looking teenager across the classroom, everybody looked at her in shock, some of them moved away while others started bickering about Ume amongst themselves.
"Big bro! Don't you dare fall asleep! Shinobu's here to help you so pay extra attention to everything she teaches you got it?!" Ume yelled at Gyutaro who looked up at her and Shinobu with an exhausted expression and nodded slightly.
Shinobu walked over to Gyutaro's table. She grabbed a chair and sat in front of him.
"Hey Gyutaro how's everything? I'm here to get you back on your feet!"
The messy green-haired boy slouched against his table. "A never-ending cycle of pain and misery." He replied tiredly.
Fuming, Ume yelled and slammed her hands on Gyutaro's table, giving the teen a shock of his life. "I TOLD YOU THIS IS NO TIME TO FALL ASLEEP!"
"YOUR SCHEME ISN'T GETTING ANYWHERE!" Gyutaro shouted back.
Those words that came out of Gyutaro's mouth were disappointing to hear, nevertheless Shinobu was going to try and change his view on certain factors that he needed to start paying attention to before it's too late.
They're just gonna keep fighting aren't they? Shinobu sat there and watched the siblings arguing with each other for a while before getting up and pacing to the board.
"Hey look! They're fighting again!" One of Gyutaro's classmates shrieked.
"Yeah that's insane." Another added on.
Suddenly an urgent set of footsteps approached the classroom, followed by heavy breathing. "What's going on here?!" Yushiro yelled, turning his head to see Shinobu standing beside the board and the two siblings screaming at each other.
Yushiro stepped into the classroom and squinted his eyes at the purple-haired girl standing in front of the class. Shinobu found the look on his face as well as his actions scrutinizing but she didn't think too much of it. This was just Yushiro being Yushiro.
"Why are you here-
"Shinobu! Gyutaro needs help with Geometry and Calculus!" With an enthusiastic smile, Ume called out to the violette from where she was standing.
With a sly smile on her face, Shinobu glimpsed at Yushiro and started walking away. "I should be asking you the same thing, school's over isn't it?"
Yushiro growled at her, he tried to remain calm but it was impossible. Her words were laced with poison. Who would've thought she'd be here, Yushiro's arms fell limp as he leaned against the table and eavesdropped on Shinobu's conversation with Gyutaro.
"It's alright Gyutaro the diagrams can be a little tricky sometimes. You're gonna need to use the formula to find the height of the triangle. Let me show you an example." The violette explained to Gyutaro, the optimistic tone of her voice made the topic seem fun and enjoyable.
When in reality, students such as Gyutaro wouldn't find joy in even the slightest mention of Math or anything related to that subject. Yushiro scratched his head and observed their study session, Ume was just there, listening to Shinobu's tips and advice, Gyutaro on the other hand took a while to process everything she said. He was far behind and Yushiro couldn't help but wonder, is school going to get tougher for him since Gyutaro being a year older than him was stumbling every single day in class.
Yushiro stood there, he saw Shinobu walking to the board. The other students in class stopped their chatter and watched the violette drawing a diagram that was similar to the one she mentioned to Gyutaro with the formula written at the top and the ninety-degree angle within the triangle.
A few minutes had passed and most of the students started leaving the classroom. Ume appeared calm throughout the entire study session. Yushiro didn't know what to make of it, if Ume was this relaxed than maybe he was in a bit of trouble, since he could somewhat relate to Gyutaro's situation and it didn't let him have a peace of mind at all.
"That's right Gyutaro has a quiz next week. His teacher said the results will determine if a student is prepared for their finals. There's still enough time to catch up and big bro should start now so he can improve quickly." Ume told Shinobu who was done with the drawing and the formulas on the board.
"He'll know where he stands after this quiz and I don't want him to be demoralized. It's going to affect his grades, he needs that spark now."
"Which is why I'm gonna try my best to cover as much of Geometry and Calculus as possible." Shinobu replied, writing down an additional formula that left Yushiro speechless.
Yushiro flickered his eyes to Gyutaro who was taking down some notes. Alright I should be paying attention too, we're in the same boat after all. Approaching the tall teenager with the messy hair, Yushiro took a seat beside him and listened to Shinobu's explanation.
"This is all so confusing. My brain hurts." Gyutaro said quietly.
"It's such a bore." Yushiro sat back with his arms crossed.
"Yeah exactly. How could anyone find joy in this?"
"Well my friend, this world is full of surprises that's all I can say."
"Oh yeah? Then what do you have to say to THIS?!"
The green-haired teen was taken aback by that voice. There was a large hand on his shoulder, Yushiro had a bad feeling about this but there was nothing he could do about it.
He slowly turned around and saw the giant figure of Toro standing behind him with Joreishi and the rest of his gang surrounding him. The bandage on his forehead couldn't even hide the bruise that left an imprint on him. It won't be there for long, but Toro sure wasn't happy about it, nobody would.
"Oh hey Toro! How's the game? Did you enjoy it?" Yushiro stammered, moving away from the towering figure behind him.
"Somebody else bought it you scum!"
"Oh that's unfortunate, you'll get it next time."
Toro grabbed the collar of Yushiro's uniform, lifting him up from his seat. "Don't try to act all tough and mighty twerp! You're always getting in the way of my plans!"
Yushiro furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about? That's only happened three times this year!"
Shinobu paused and watched the chaotic scene unfold. The violette panicked, she had to think of a way to get those two to stop arguing before they duke it out in this classroom.
"Oh no it's Toro!" Someone yelled while the remaining students cowered away from Toro and his henchmen.
Ume rolled her eyes and spoke. "Hey cut it out losers! You're interrupting our study session. Everybody's terrified now." That was true, the other students in class were paying attention to Shinobu's lesson until this happened.
"Losers? Who are you calling losers? Bet you've never won any battles before!" Toro snarled at Ume who crossed her arms. She seemed unfazed by him.
"Duh. I don't fight losers. It's not worth my time." Ume responded coldly.
Toro and his henchmen exchanged puzzled looks with one another. They didn't understand why Ume was getting herself involved with their confrontation. Despite how tough and intimidating Toro was, she didn't care, she just told him off like that. This made Toro furious. Nobody speaks to him like that, this was all Yushiro's fault!
"Who do you think you are?"
Yushiro blinked. "Who do I think I am? Seriously are we doing pre-introduction sessions now? The new school term hasn't even started yet."
"Alright everybody that's enough. We're here to learn not battle in some tournament." Shinobu said firmly.
"Oh I'd love to battle in this tournament we're talking about! I don't need to use any fists, the power of truth and criticism is enough." Ume glanced at Toro who was fuming in anger.
Gyutaro placed his hand against his cheek, staring at the board and tapping his fingers on the table. Finally it's over.
"What? Is that Math?" Toro said, looking at the board fearfully.
"Yep." Yushiro replied dully.
Lifting his eyebrow, Gyutaro glanced at the boys with an unsurprised look. I guess we all share a common enemy.
"Just thinking about it is making my brain hurt." Toro held his head and backed away.
"It's getting to me too." Joreishi rasped.
Shinobu turned around and smiled. "Well that means those brains of yours are working guys!" The violette chimed.
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" All the boys shouted at once.
"Oops sorry!" Facing the board at that instant, Shinobu continued writing more details on the board. At least the guys were keeping up with the pace which meant the lesson was effective.
"You guys are hilarious!" Ume laughed, while the boys stared at the workings intensely.
About an hour passed, everyone in the classroom were discussing about calculus and the methods to solve the workings that Shinobu wrote on the board. It was too much to process at first but the boys got the hang of the basics eventually.
"Alright so you gotta make sure you solve each section of these workings carefully, your calculations will affect the final equation so don't miss out on anything." Shinobu explained to which everyone nodded.
"Maybe that's why I keep making the same mistakes." Yushiro said to himself. He remembered the questions he struggled with during those tests. Connecting the dots during Shinobu's class helped him learn from his mistakes effectively.
"This is like Physics all over again." Toro said, spinning the pen on his table.
"Oh don't remind me about that." Gyutaro replied.
Soon, the class came to an end. Shinobu approached her students with a smile on her face, she was glad they learned a lot today. The violette was certain they'd do better than before.
"Keep me updated on your progress!" The violette said cheerfully.
Everyone started packing their stuff. Shinobu was really smart, that was a known fact and this class she conducted carried that legacy.
Meanwhile, Gyutaro sat there, worrying about the quiz when Shinobu approached him.
"I can't wait to hear from you soon Gyutaro. Goodluck on your quiz. You can do it!" Shinobu said with much encouragement.
Gyutaro smiled, emitting the same energy that Shinobu had, it gave him the motivation to keep striving. He always had it in him but he didn't realize it until someone else helped him to reach out and grab it.
"Thanks Shinobu. I'll do an excellent job on that quiz."
"That's the spirit!"
Ume chimed in. "Wow that was amazing Shinobu! Good job!" The girl clasped her hands together, cheering on for the violette. "Thank you so much Shinobu. You're the best!"
Shinobu smiled at the siblings, glad that she evoked the spark in everyone who was in search of it.