Andromeda

The Inner Man – Episode 3 – School

Chiko walked with his back hunched over, slouching and a long, exhausted expression across his face. He could not remember the last that he had to wake up so early in the morning. The birds were already out chirping so loud it felt like they were going to shatter his ears. This was hardly what he had in mind for blending into the new life that he had. What was he going to do now, having to go to school over again?

“He was enjoying it too much that Mashiro. Oh, I’ll get him for this! Mashiro!” he shouted to the heavens thrusting his fists into the air. His cries startled some of the other children walking to school. He tried to keep his distance from them so that he was not forced into a situation to speak with them. He always had trouble with children, especially babies, he would back away when ever there was someone trying to introduce them to their child. “What irony, someone seems to have a twisted sense of humor,” he said under his breath. “But that Mashiro, Mashiro!”

His voice became louder again putting the children on edge. Chiko was making too much attention for himself; he shied away from the group of children nearby rushing ahead where there was not anyone around him. It frustrated him having to go to school and be around these children. How was he going to hide from the syndicate that was chasing him if he was out in the middle of the day exposed to anything? Mashiro was being reckless he thought, but all Mashiro could do was laugh at him.

Chiko’s hands clinched together in rage again, “Mashiro!” He could remember clearly what had happened that put him into this situation of him walking to school right now. It was two days ago, only a week after they had arrived in Osaka when Mashiro came up to him and informed him that Section Three had enrolled him in school. He had seemed very serious at the start.

“Chiko, I have something important to tell you,” Mashiro said. Chiko had been a little puzzled by what it was that he was being so serious about. He was a little worried that the syndicate had already found them and they were leaving.

“Yes…”

And then Mashiro face shattered into a smile and laughter, “You get to go to school. Section 3 has enrolled you in the local elementary school.”

“What?! I can’t go to school, what about the Awaking Dragons?”

“Best for you to blend in, and what do eight year olds do? They go to school, you got no choice in the matter.”

“You can’t be serious, I’m an adult of course I have a choice.”

“Guess what kiddo, you’re a kid and under the protection of Section 3, you don’t have a choice.”

“I won’t stand for this, you can’t do this to me.”

“Well then sit down and take a deep breath because this is how it is going to be.” Chiko crossed his arms and turned his head away from Mashiro. “Pouting is not going to help, it just goes to prove how much of a child you really are.” Chiko turned looking at him in anger and kicked him in the shin and ran away. Mashiro collapsed quickly to the floor in pain as Chiko disappeared into another room. “Grrr, that doctor was right about his strength, only been a week. Ah, if it hurt anymore I’d swear he broke it.”

Chiko had finally made it to the school gates, the large two story building laid out across a block or more of the neighborhood neatly tucked away in the houses and cherry trees that surrounded it’s fence. It seemed inviting, though Chiko was concerned about actually going into the school. He had not been a kid in years, and just because he had been one did not mean he knew how to act like one. If he was not careful he was going to make mistakes that could expose him.

He stood just outside of the gate when he heard the school bell ring, probably an early warning saying that everyone should be inside soon. There was little choice of what he could do; he started to move his feet turning around to run away. Unfortunately at that moment a mob of students came rushing through the gates towards him; children of various ages all about the same as him plowed through the gates. He was pushed into the school by the mob and thrown to the cold floor as they trampled over him unnoticed.

The students had finally passed through to their classes leaving Chiko with footprints on his face and clothes. He pulled himself up off of the floor and looked around trying to dust off his dress and blouse. His eyebrow twitched a little in anger as their first impressions where literally on him. “I’ve had it with this!” Chiko started angrily out of the school when suddenly the bell rang again. He then heard the sound of footsteps again and saw a cloud a smoke around a stampeding mob of students arriving late to the school. “Why me…”

The stamped mowed down Chiko in an instant sending him to the floor once again. His anger starting to mount as each footstep smashed into him. They finally passed him by and he jumped to his feet face red with anger ready to punch something. Chiko looked around looking for anyone that was would just look at him. He had had it with the school and started down the stairs outside of the school.

It was just as the made it down the stairs that he saw another small mob of students rushing to get inside the school. “How many of them are there?!” They came at him in full force and when they hit him head on they swarmed around him trying to get into the building. He was lost in the mass when he let out a scream and punched the nearest one of them seeing a boy flying up out of the mass. Quickly following were several more students, a couple being girls. The small swarm had finally left with Chiko leaving a dozen causalities in his wake. He stood in the middle of the schoolyard breathing heavy; the wind blew by echoing the silence as the students he pummeled stood up looking back at him. The two girls stared at him seemed to be more angry than scared.

“What you do that for, you’re going to pay for that! I’m going to…” one of the girls said to Chiko who stood posed to get hit. “I’m going to tell my mommy on you, you ruined my uniform.” The two girls then ran off crying into the school their sounds of crying slowly fading away. Chiko just stood there a little off balance by the sudden reversal; he was not sure what to think.

The boys he had hit however stood up looked ready to attack him for having hit them. Chiko backed a step away as they started to surround him, he turned his head side to side watching their movements carefully. The wind blew through the schoolyard again this time echoing the tension that was increasing. Slowly they closed in around him until they could practically touch him. They were about strike when a voice from behind stopped them, “Picking on a girl, have you boys no manners.”

“But she started it Mrs. Toki.”

“That is enough boys, you have class don’t you?”

“Yes, Mrs. Toki.”

Chiko turned to see a woman standing in the door, rather beautiful. He might have asked her out for tea or something if he was not a child. The boys passed by him sticking their tongues out at him quickly before they ran into the school to their classes.

“Now who are you? I don’t recognize you as one of our students.”

“Oh, umm…I’m a new student,” he said grudgingly knowing he would not be able to get out of it.

“Really? Welcome to Noyai Elementary School. I’m Mrs. Toki the Principal.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s get you inside and cleaned up.” Chiko followed her to her office where she happened to have a spare uniform for him to wear. He then introduced himself and was told what room he was put in. She gave him what seemed like the general welcoming speech and showed him to his room where he was introduced to the teacher.

The class was still a little noisy when Chiko entered the room; the teacher was organizing some things at her desk. The principal quickly spoke to the teacher leaving Chiko standing at the front of the class rather nervous about what was going to happen next for him. When the principal had finished talking with the teacher she left leaving Chiko alone with them, the nightmare that he would have to live.

The teacher walked over to him and looked down at him smiling, “Welcome, my name is Natsuko Shimasuke, you can call me Mrs. Shimasuke. Heard from the principal that some boys tried to pick a fight with you. I hope you are alright, you feel up to introducing yourself to the class?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Alright! I’ll get them to quiet down,” she said smiling warmly to him. She did have a calming effect on him that made him comfortable in spite of everything that had already happened. Mrs. Shimasuke turned to face the class and with a rather meek voice tried to get the class’ attention, “Everyone, settle down please.” She tried a few more times without success; Chiko was a little concern what sort of teacher this woman was not to have control of her students. It did not matter how warm and caring you were if you did not have the students behaving. “Everyone, shut up right now! Sit you rears in your seats and faces forward!” Mrs. Shimasuke said nearly screaming to them getting all of their attention and knocking Chiko off his feet.

“Gah, did not think she had that in her. Man, that was scary,” he thought to himself. It was effective though, all of the students had stopped what they were doing and now were sitting politely in their seats looking at the teacher.

“We have a new student that is joining our class today,” she said looking back at Chiko on the floor. “Oh my, what happened to you, did you slip?”

“I’m…I’m okay,” he said softly.

“Well don’t be shy, introduce yourself.”

“Umm…” Chiko stood before the class knowing that he was locked into the situation now. He did not really know where he was going to go with this; it had been a long time since he had actually introduced himself. On top of that there was problem of trying to remember what was actually the correct information that had been created for him. He was not used to having to pretend to be someone else, let alone remember a completely different person and life that was not really his.

“Now remember Chiko, you have a new life that you have get used to,” Mashiro had said to him earlier that morning before he left for school, “That means more than just living in a girl’s body or even pretending to be a girl. You have to take on a whole new identity. I don’t expect you to remember everything, but if you are going to blend in you can’t be Chiko anymore. Do you understand?”

“Hello, my name is Kohana Kitayama, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Everyone, please welcome Kohana to the class. Do you have any questions for her?”

“Where are you from?”

“Where am I from, what do I say? I can’t remember what Mashiro told me to say. What town was it, I can’t remember it was some small little place up in north that I’ve never heard of. Why did he try to make me learn all of these things? I never even heard of most of it.” Chiko stood pensive in front of the class hoping that his memories would come back to him. It might have only been yesterday when Mashiro told him all of his new life, but everything had slipped his mind. He barely remembered what his new name was supposed to be. It was a little unusual for him to be so forgetful, he wondered if it was also due to the fact of the mind transfer still sorting things out. “Ah, I’m from Tokyo, I just moved here last week.”

“Really?! Tokyo, I’ve been there once, daddy had a business trip there.”

“Why did you move?”

“Umm…What do I say? I obviously can’t say the truth, but I’m terrible with this impromptu stuff. Why did I agree to do this in the first?”

“Don’t worry Kohana, if it is too personal you do not have to answer the question. Only answer what you feel comfortable with,” the teacher said.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

“What do you like?”

“Well, I like to paint.”

“Paint?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I mean I like to color and draw.”

“Wow, what you like to color?”

The line of questions was a little easier for him to handle, but he still slipped up. He was starting to dread the rest of the day for how many times he would have to be careful about what he said around them. These children probably would not understand a lot of the things that he would say. It was going to be hard for him to separate Kohana from Chiko. “I guess whatever I can find.”

“Well I think that is enough questions for now, you can get to know Kohana more later. You can sit with Sakura in the third desk back. If you have questions about the lessons you can ask her.”

“Thank you.” Chiko walked to the seat that he was directed to, a long table with room for two people. The entire classroom was made up of the tables with everyone in pairs. He could only guess that it was to encourage working together to strengthen whatever weaknesses they had. It was a fairly strong theory in child development lately, he had not given it much thought but it did seem to have some merit. It was not as though he really needed help; it was second year elementary school after all.

He took his seat with Sakura on his left, she smiled at him greeting him, “Hello, I’m Sakura Namimura. How is your first day?”

”Great, if not for having been trampled by little brats, having my clothes ruined, nearly getting caught by that principal for fighting, being forced to wear this stupid dress uniform, having to be little girl, and having to attend this stupid school. I’m a little nervous, but it haven’t had any trouble yet.”

“Oh, that is good. I hope you have a good day.”

“Thank you.”

The class began to take order as the teacher directed them towards some previous work that they had done to turn in today. It was obvious that Chiko would not be able to do so, but from what he gathered from what she had said it was writing practice. He knew all of the characters that they had done when he glanced at Sakura’s sheet. It seemed that they were looking at technique and strokes, writing in the correct direction and order. It was pretty easy for children to pick up words and just try to copy it, but if it were not written correctly they would end up having something that looked unreadable.

He noticed that Sakura had made a mistake and was about to say something to her when she handed it in. Afterwards he had to remind himself to hold back what he knew. If he were too forth coming with information it would draw unwarranted attention to him. Especially since he had no way to explain himself out of the situation. “Well if I just never speak, I should be fine then.”

The class lessons began starting with learning letters and characters. He casually sat back in his chair rather bored by the whole process. As they went through each step, he leisurely wrote it down to make it look like he was actually paying attention. His mind however was on other things; the questions they had asked him made him start thinking about his paintings. He had been working on a piece when everything had happen. It was left unfinished, probably destroyed with the rest of his things, but it nagged at him that it was unfinished. He had never left something undone; though it was not as though he would be able to actually finish it anyway. Even if he were to start all over it was not the same work that he started, he had been painting for necessity for so long he could not remember the last time that he actually painted to simply paint. ”When was it that I did? I know I did…why can’t I remember?”

“Miss Kohana, are we boring you?” The teacher’s shout woke him from his daze as he looked down to see that he had accidentally scribbled out something. It looked a little familiar to him, but he did not know why, it was just an ordinary guy that he had drawn.

“I’m…I’m sorry. So much for a low profile,” he said as he heard laughter from some of the students in the class. His face got a little red, as he became the center of the attention.

“Now, then. Moving to mathematics, since we were boring you so much before Kohana you will answer the first one.”

“What?! Why me?”

“Don’t know your math? Well then lets keep it simple then, three plus two.”

“Five,” he said quickly.

“Good, not completely asleep, try this one. Four plus five.”

“Nine.”

“Six plus seven.”

“Thirteen.”

“Hrmph, you seem to know your addition.”

“Nine minus three.”

“Six.”

“Three minus three.”

“Zero.”

The questions were starting to come faster at him, he was just casually sitting in the chair not really paying much attention to her or what he was doing. The teacher just keep launching equations at him, as though they were meant to be attacks. She seemed to get worked up by his ability to keep up with her equations. She moved into multiplication trying to stump him.

“Three times three.”

“Nine.”

“Four time five.”

“Twenty.”

“Six times nine.”

“Fifty-four.”

The teacher hands were hard pressed against her desk; one of the hands was tightly squeezing a piece of chalk that looked like it was going to crack any moment. She was getting more aggravated by Chiko’s ability in mathematics. She started to snap out equations at him almost desperate now to stump him.

“Twenty divided by two.”

“Ten.”

“Four times two plus ten.”

“Eighteen.”

The equations and answers were flying around so fast the class was looking back and forth like at a tennis match seeing the next volley returned. Each one holding their own against the other, though Chiko just calmly was sitting in his seat not even looking. If he were he would have melted under his seat in embarrassment of the attention. The teacher looked as though she was weakening, failing under the pressure, but still returned numbers back at him.

“Ten times eleven plus twenty-three.”

“One hundred thirty-three.”

Chiko started to lean forward, actually having to pay attention to all of the numbers that she was shouting out at him. It had been a while since he had done so many math problems, but it was hardly a challenge, he had done quite well in college. People had wondered why he was an artist for the talents he had with math.

“Square root of five times five.”

“Five. Please, you going to try to trick me with that.”

“Nine squared divided by three.”

“Twenty-seven.”

“Four times two and one half.”

“Ten.”

“Grrr…” The teacher stood up straight and in what looked like she was launching some strange attack at him quickly went to the board furiously writing out the math equation to end all equations. Chiko was rather embarrassed by how serious she was taking this and the extent, let alone the overly complicated setup that she had done. When she had finished the equation and revealed it to him he saw a flaw in her equation. “Well take that!” She said breathing heavily, completely exhausted.

“How am I supposed to solve that, it is…wait a minute! What am I doing? This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. I can’t believe how stupid I am.”

“Too hard for you?”

“What was the lesson for today?”

“Times tables, hey wait don’t change the topic. What is the answer?”

“I thought I was just suppose to answer the first one.”

“Stop avoiding me or can’t you answer it? You can’t right? Too hard for you huh. Hah hah hah, I stumped you now didn’t I!”

Chiko sighed, he really wanted to put her in her place, but she was already embarrassing herself by trying to beat an eight year old. The woman seemed far too happy for having a victory in mathematics over one of her students. It was hardly the style of teaching that he would have expected to see. Everyone in the class seemed extremely embarrassed by the teacher’s dancing about the room praising herself. Chiko sighed returning to his slouched position in the chair.

“My you know your math really well,” Sakura said.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, where did you learn so much, Mrs. Shimasuke always confuses us with her math, they say she studied math is college taking something called Calkewus.”

“Calculus.”

“Yeah! That’s it, wow you know a lot. How do you know so much?”

“I ah umm…” Suddenly he had nearly the entire class around him wide eyed with attention at him. He started to sweat as they all gathered around him with questions and praise for him. “So much for a low profile.” He just wanted to melt away to the floor and crawl from the classroom hoping to forget everything that was happening.

“Wow, you are so cool.”

“That is awesome, no one has been able to beat Mrs. Shimasuke like that.”

“You’re cool.”

“How come you know so much.”

“Did you go to college like her.”

“Don’t be stupid, how could she gone to college, you have be thirteen to go to college.”

“Oh yeah.”

“No, that is not right.”

“Huh?”

The attention he had quickly garnered nearly evaporated in an instant as they got in a pointless argument about Chiko’s supposed college days. It would probably have shocked them all if they actually knew the truth, not as though he could even think about telling them the truth. Chiko sighed again in relief that his ten seconds of classroom fame disappeared, though the teacher was still dancing about with no awareness of what was happening. “Is she always like that?”

“Who?”

“Mrs. Shimasuke.”

“Yeah, she gets like that every so often, I think the last time was a month ago. I can’t remember, we just let her have her fun her mood changes a lot.”

“Must be that time of the month,” he said softly.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” Chiko looked back at the teacher through the crowds or students still gathered around him. He was not completely sure what to think of his teacher, but maybe a little excitement might be good for him after all. There was not a lot he could do anyway about his situation, he just hope that every day would not be like this. Though he remained quiet he would be able escape most of the problems. It just concerned him long he could keep quiet in a classroom where you were eventually expected to answer questions.
Mrs. Shimasuke finally settled down and remembered that she was suppose to be teaching them mathematics and not patting herself on the back. The lesson began, back at where it started originally with addition. She covered addition briefly and moved on to teaching the times tables, which they were learning at the time. Chiko obviously already knew all of the answers and he figured that she had figured that out by now too. She did not call on him the entire time during the math lesson. It was a relief for him; he was tired of being the center of attention, especially during his first day.

It was not long that they moved on past that to something else that he did not pay much mind to. He followed her along as the lesson went, however grudgingly he simply wanted to avoid her wrath on him again. There were already questions flying around as to who he was and why he knew so much. He did not need to be adding to all of the mysteries that were beginning to develop around him thanks to his own ignorance of the situation.

Chiko looked around every so often to find them staring at him only to quickly turn away when he looked at him. He hoped that his brief popularity that he had would disappear quickly, it was going to drive him insane if everyone was always watching him. Sakura was already asking him questions and getting help from him for some of things that she did not understand. It was difficult for him to figure out where he was suppose to draw the line, let alone try to explain some of the things to her.

Then lunch finally came when he heard a loud squealing of tires outside. Everyone rushed to the window curious to see what was happening. Chiko did not really care too much and remained in his seat slowly shading his paper with his pencil. But everyone else seemed quite excited by what happening outside.

A car quickly slid in from the far end of the street shattering the peaceful neighborhood’s silence. The car then raced down the street towards the school looking like it was going to blaze on by without stopping for the children that might be passing by. But it made a sharp turn into the school parking lot squealing its tires once again leaving black tire marks along the street. With the same recklessness that it entered the parking lot it found a spot narrowly missing most of the cars in the process.

The students all look out of the window to see who it was that was going to exit out of the car. As a man in sunglasses and a casual shirt and pants exited the car there were shouts from the other classrooms. They were all getting excited over him, Chiko just sighed and ignored them until he heard a familiar voice.

“Hey kiddos which one of your guys are room two-c?”

“We are!” said a few shouts of students.

“My little Kohana up there still?”

Dark clouds of dread just started to appear around Chiko as he knew exactly who it was at that moment. “Mashiro…” Chiko stood up slowly starting to walk out of the classroom when a long arm pulled him to the window nearly smacking his face against the glass.

“Here she is!”

“Hey there, how my little girl doing on her first day?”

“Umm, well, umm good.”

“Ah, that’s great, looks like you already made some friends, I brought you your lunch that you forgot. I’ll be up there in a minute, don’t go running off on me now.”

“Right…”

“Hey, Kohana that your father?”

“Umm…”

“Your brother?”

“Errr…What do I say, oh I can’t remember,” he thought starting to cry for no reason. It just seemed like a good idea at the moment. He did not even think about it, and just collapsed on the floor. There were so many things going through his mind, he could not keep them straight. If he kept screwing up Mashiro would not know what was right or wrong. He would have destroyed the secret completely in one day, and the syndicate would find him without even trying. “Do I even deserve to be protected if I can’t even remember what I am suppose to?”

“What’s wrong Kohana, did we upset you?” Sakura asked, she looked genuinely sad and concerned about him. He did not really know what to say to her, there was not a lot he really could not say to her. There were too many things happening that he just wanted to get away from. He had too much attention. What was he going to tell them? He was crying for nearly no reason, or at least not one that he could explain to them. It did make him feel a little better though that she was worried about him.

“What’s going on here?!” Mrs. Shimasuke said pushing through the crowd. “Why is everyone gathered by the window? Hey why is Kohana crying, alright which one of you boys made her cry?”

“We didn’t do anything!”

“Come on speak up, which one of the boys did it!” The anger in her voice rose as she seemed to be towering over the little children looking answers. Her eyes were narrow and small seeking out the guilty party. Unfortunately for her, none of them were actually guilty, but she was insistent on finding the boy that did it. But there was no backing her down as the children slowly crawled into the corner.

“Hey, Kohana, where you are?” Mashiro said with a smile.

Mashiro’s voice distracted everyone, including the teacher shifting attention to the doorway. Chiko used the distraction to break free of the crowd around him running for the door where Mashiro was standing. It looked like he was running towards Mashiro to hold on to him, but as Mashiro bent down with his arms out Chiko ran through the doorway. Tears bled into the air in front of Mashiro as he looked back at Chiko running away down the hallway fading into the distance.

Mashiro’s mouth hung agape not sure what had just happened and looked back at the class of students looking for some answers. He stood up scratching his head hoping that he would soon have some answers. As he slowly walked into the room the teacher rushed up to meet him and all of the students gathered around. He was a little taken back by the sudden attention. “Umm, hello.”

“Hello,” said an echo of students.

“Who are you, mister?”

“Me, I’m Mashiro, Kohana’s guardian.”

Chiko ran through the halls not really paying any attention to where it was he was going, just more concerned about getting some distance between the class and Mashiro. He made it to the end of the hall only to find stairs going down to the first floor. By the time he had made to the end he had finally stopped crying, but when saw the stairs and knew he could not go down he started to cry again.

He was at the end of his rope; whatever control he had over himself was gone now. It was hardly even registering to him that he was actually crying, he was just confused and upset. There was too much riding on him actually fitting into this school and pretending to be a girl. He did not want to screw it up, he knew that the syndicate was looking for him and if he failed like he was they would not have any trouble finding him. What was he going to do, he was failing at the only he had to succeed to at?

As time passed Chiko started to feel a little better and dried his eyes. He had finally started to come around to his senses and had found himself crying for some unknown reason. It did not make a lot of sense to him; it was becoming strange to him how often he found himself crying. “Could something be wrong with the body?” There was not a lot he could do right now, so he stood up and walked back to the classroom. Unfortunately he was completely lost.

Chiko walked slowly through the hall checking each room, the signs posted above the doors. There was not a lot he could do about it other than just hope he had not passed by his room already. Thankfully, he could remember what his room number was, it was about the only thing that he could remember in his mixed up mind at the moment. It had him concerned when he had first started looking; he had to pause for a moment to think about it. Though after a few moments he was able to recall it and keep moving, he just keep saying it to himself so that he would not forget.

It was beginning to worry him if this mind transfer had screwed up things in the brain of this girl. It was a really young body, would it be able to take everything that he had created in his life. Did he still have all of his memories? Could he even know if he had them all? If forgot something he would not have anyway of knowing, there was no one he could ask. Anyone that might know something about him would not recognize him anymore, let alone telling them who he was would place them in danger. He had a dangerous secret within him, would he be able to keep it secret?

After a few minutes of searching he heard some strange noises coming from a room up ahead. They were varied, but it almost sounded like crying. He wondered what was happening and rushed up to the room that he was hearing the noise from. Chiko slid the door open to find it to be his class and all of the girls were crying including the teacher. Even some of the boys looked to be crying or ready to start at any moment. When they all looked to see who it was that opened the door, all of the girls ran to him crying even louder. The teacher joined them hugging him or squeezing, he did not know at the point what was going on other than a dozen people were mauling him all at once.

“We are sorry Kohana we did not know.”

“Yeah, you are so brave!”

Chiko face became a question mark as he looked at Mashiro who seemed to be grinning sheepishly and slightly embarrassed. “What did he say?” He was about to ask when the teacher choked him again crying on his face. “Gees, what was it that he said that has them all like this? What did you tell them?”

“The truth, Kohana.”

“Huh?! You didn’t!”

“Yeah, he told us everything, about how you lost your mother when you were four years old to an illness and your father died of a broken heart just a few weeks ago when your older sister was killed in an accidental shooting.”

“Ah…”

“And you were all alone and how Mr. Mashiro here, a friend of your family generously put his career as a professional racer on hold just so that he could raise you. He brought you from Tokyo from all of your memories and wanted you to have a normal life. It was so sad the way he told it.”

“I bet…”

“Yes, you are lucky Kohana, such a generous man, so kind and gentle,” Mrs. Shimasuke said finally pulling away from Chiko, “You are so fortunate to be living with such a handsome man.”

“Errr…”

“Aw, hey, no need to carry on like that about me, I’m just doing what I knew to be right.”

“And modest too,” Mrs. Shimasuke said with stars in her eyes.

“Ah, yeah, well I’ll keep that in mind,” Chiko said. “You don’t mind if borrow Mashiro from you for a moment to speak with him in private, do you?”

“Oh, of course not, lunch is almost over, but you few minutes left still.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Shimasuke.” Chiko pulled Mashiro out of the classroom by the arm and went down around the hallway out of sight of the classroom. Chiko could see a few of them staring of the doorway watching them leave. “I already made matters bad enough for myself, and now you come a make it worse…” Once they were finally out of sight of everyone, Chiko kicked him in the shins. “Are you trying to make things even harder for me?”

“Gah, the doctor was right, you are getting stronger. Gah, hold back on me will you!”

“What you call that back there. I leave the room for ten minutes and you have the entire room in tears.”

“Yeah, well I figured you needed some help explaining things to them, so I got carried away in the moment.”

“Carried away, come on.”

“Hey, at least they won’t be asking you questions you can’t answer.”

“Yeah, well now I have to live with what you told them, now they are going to all weepy eye around me now.”

“What can I say, you have such a tragic life and only eight years old too.”

“Tragic now, thanks to you. And what did you tell my teacher, she was practically in your lap.”

“Ah fine woman, she just recognizes a dependable man when she sees one.”

“Right, whatever, you’ve done enough to make sure I’m embarrassed enough for the next month. You’re job is done, just go back to where ever.”

“Aww, are you embarrassed, so cute you are Kohana.”

“Knock it off before I kick you again.”

“Ok, ok. I still have to drive. See you at home, here is your lunch princess.”

Chiko sighed, already exhausted by the day and it was only half over. He walked back to the classroom finding the doorway crowded with faces all with tears still in their eyes. “I’m going to kill him…” There was not a lot he could do with them at this moment and so he just pulled up a smile and kept walking towards them. In the back Mrs. Shimasuke was barking orders telling the students to make room for him. This was definitely going to a long day for him he decided, probably the longest day he had ever had.

He managed to get to his seat and begin quickly eating through his lunch. It was a little difficult though when he had Sakura’s watery eyes staring at him all the time. Even the teacher seemed a little emotional still. He just tried to look forward and not sweat too much knowing that nearly everyone in the class was staring at him feeling sympathetic to the lie that Mashiro told them. “He really knows how to sell a lie, but why did he have to make everyone in the room cry. Now I will be forever known as the girl you feel bad for because she’s had everything bad in her life happen to her. Though I guess it is pretty close to how my life is actually bad. Why me…and why do I feel like crying again, I can’t though. If I start crying again I’ll get the entire class in tears.”

The class continued slowly through the day. Chiko kept staring at the clock hoping that it would be time to leave soon. Unfortunately for three hours it was not the right time to leave. However, that time had finally arrived and they were all dismissed from class. Everyone rushed out of the classroom, Chiko would have too if Sakura had not stopped him.

“Are you feeling okay, Kohana?”

“Yeah, why you ask, Sakura?”

“Well, you just been really quiet since you got back from talking with Mr. Mashiro.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m fine, just rough first day.”

“Oh, okay. I’m glad, hope tomorrow is better.”

“Me too.” Chiko then left quickly from the classroom and took the elevator down to the first floor. The entire time he had not realized that he had been on the second floor. He did not even know how he got up to the second floor, he just remembered speaking with the principal and he was suddenly in the class afterwards. It was not until he had run out during lunch that he realized that he was on the second floor of the school. Whether it was fortunate or not for him, he had forgotten about that fact until he had found the stairs again when he was leaving. He was only grateful that the school had an elevator that was open for use for the students. After the day he had, he did not need to deal with his irrational fear of stairs.

Chiko made it back home without incident, even if a few of the students had followed him for a couple blocks. He just hoped that the popularity that Mashiro had instilled him with would be gone by tomorrow. If not, he was going to have another bad day. But with a sigh he entered the house and heard an echo from the back of the house that was Mashiro.

“Welcome home, my little Kohana!”

“Where are you, Mashiro?”

“In the kitchen.”

“Good no one will hear you scream then.”

”Hey! Get away with that. Ah, that hurts. Gah, you’re strong. Hey, I need that to drive!”

Meanwhile in a dark room with only one bright light illuminating the small room there was a man hunched over in a chair. He had his arms tied behind the chair and his shirt nearly torn to pieces. What was left of his suit was red with blood and his face and body covered in cuts, bruises and whatever other means of torture that they had done to this man. Fortunately for the man in the chair he was unconscious now, having endured hours of interrogation.

There was a man standing over him, he walked out of the room, the light touched his face for a brief moment that revealed the scar across his face. He closed the door to the room behind him being met by two men in suits.

“Did he talk?”

“Barely, but I got enough to start.”

“The boss will be pleased.”

“Pack your things, we are paying a visit to Osaka…”

Preview for the next episode :

"Chiko thought dealing with school was bad enough, but how will he handle his newest crisis...boys!"

"You can't be serious. I'm a guy!"

"Such is irony."

"Boys...I can't believe this, who is making this stuff up?"

"Pervert!"

"Hey, watch what you say!"

"Haha, pervert!"

"Stop it! Oh my, it’s almost over. Next episode of The Inner Man, Boys!"

"Pervert, you already thinking bad thoughts!"

"I'm going to kill you! Don't missed it or I'll strangle him. Teehee!"

"Hey, don't drag me into your threats!"