Chapter 275 - 275: Tutoring Mobilization!

The tail end of summer break wore away, little by little, amid the cicadas' song.

In the last week of August, Tokyo's weather remained as stifling and humid as a steamer.

Heat shimmered up from the asphalt, and distant buildings wavered faintly in the haze.

Tsushima Kagami stood on the apartment balcony, holding a glass of chilled barley tea.

He wore a gray T-shirt and dark athletic shorts, his hair unkempt and falling messily over his forehead.

"Kagami, dinner's ready."

Yukinoshita Shizuku's voice carried in from the living room.

Kagami answered, downed the rest of his barley tea in one go, and turned to head inside.

He sat down across from her, pressed his palms together with an "Itadakimasu," and picked up his rice bowl.

"School starts tomorrow."

Yukinoshita Shizuku said, sipping her soup.

"Mm."

"Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"For exam prep."

She glanced up at him.

"Weren't you saying just a few days ago that you'd drop all your work to focus on exam prep?"

Kagami picked up a piece of salmon with his chopsticks, chewed, and swallowed.

"I meant helping Sayuri prep. Not myself."

"You're always like this."

"Like what?"

"You never bother about yourself, but you're plenty attentive to everyone else."

"Jealous?"

"Then I won't tutor Sayuri anymore."

"Hmph, I'm not that petty."

"As expected of the mistress of the Tsushima household."

"Truly magnanimous."

Kagami picked up the miso soup Yukinoshita Shizuku had served him. As he drank, his gaze kept drifting to her ample chest.

"Honestly, quit staring during meals!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku turned away, glaring at him with mock indignation.

Kagami set his bowl and chopsticks down too, laughing.

"Then I won't eat."

"I want something else."

"No, you have to finish your rice!"

Yukinoshita Shizuku pointed at the food on the table.

"If I finish it all, do I get a reward?"

Laughing, Kagami picked his bowl back up and started shoveling food into his mouth, all while grinning at her.

Yukinoshita Shizuku gave him a look of helpless exasperation.

"Fine, what reward do you want?"

"I want a big white steamed bun!"

In the afternoon, Kagami went to the Manga Research Club.

During summer break, the clubroom had stayed locked.

He borrowed the key from a teacher in the administrative office, and when he pushed the door open, a wave of stuffy hot air hit him.

The room's layout was exactly as it had been the last time he'd visited.

Sayuri's workbooks were stacked up, the top one lying open with a pencil still tucked between its pages, as if waiting for her to come back and pick up where she'd left off.

The posters on the wall had started to yellow, and boxes of doujinshi — leftover unsold copies the seniors had deliberately left behind — sat piled in a corner.

The countdown on the whiteboard still showed the pre-summer number: "XX days until graduation."

Kagami walked to the window and pushed it open.

A gust of hot wind rushed in, rustling the manuscript paper on the desk with a papery clatter.

He remembered that around this time last year, he'd just moved into Hayase Kinue's apartment with Yukinoshita Shizuku.

Back then, he'd just been an ordinary high schooler hoping to earn some money writing novels and drawing manga.

"Kagami?"

Sayuri's voice came from behind him.

He turned to see her standing in the clubroom doorway, a convenience-store plastic bag in hand.

She wore a white T-shirt printed with a cartoon cat and pale blue denim shorts, her hair tied into two low ponytails draped over her shoulders.

Her cheeks were still flushed from hurrying over, a few strands of hair sticking to her temple with sweat.

"What are you doing here?"

Kagami asked.

"I came to get my workbook. I left it in the clubroom over break."

She walked in, set the bag on the desk, and started rummaging through her own desk.

"What about you? Why are you here?"

Kagami smiled.

He sat down in the seat next to hers and idly picked up one of her open workbooks, flipping through it.

"Did you finish your summer homework?"

Sayuri's expression froze instantly.

"I... I finished it."

"Really?"

"Of course I did!"

She snatched the workbook out of his hands and hugged it tight to her chest.

"Don't look at me like you don't believe me!"

"Then show me your work on the last three math problems."

Sayuri fell silent.

"I knew it."

Kagami sighed.

"School starts tomorrow, and you're only starting your homework today, aren't you?"

"I—I am not!"

Sayuri's voice rose a notch, though it clearly lacked conviction.

"I just... forgot to bring it home, that's all."

"You can finish it at school tomorrow. There's still time."

"You're sure?"

"Su... sure."

Watching her guilty little act, a laugh slipped out of Kagami.

"Fine. I'll come to school early tomorrow and help you catch up."

Sayuri's eyes lit up for a moment, but her wariness quickly returned.

"You're not going to use this as an excuse to pile on more homework, are you?"

"When have I ever given you extra homework?"

"Every single time!"

On the first day of the September term, the sun was especially bright.

Inside the Manga Research Club room.

"Let's start with math."

Kagami pulled up a chair beside her and opened the workbook.

"The last three problems — you did similar ones before summer break. Remember?"

Sayuri chewed on her pen cap, staring at the problem for a long while before shaking her head.

"No, I don't."

"Then let's start from the beginning."

Over the next forty minutes, Kagami walked her through the problems one by one.

From formula derivation to solution logic, from calculation steps to answer verification.

He broke every step down until nothing was left unexplained.

Sayuri listened intently, occasionally furrowing her brow in thought.

Sometimes she scribbled on scratch paper; sometimes she looked up to ask, "Why does it work this way?"

"Understand now?"

After finishing the last problem, Kagami finally asked.

Sayuri stared at the steps on the scratch paper for a moment, then nodded.

"I think I get it."

"Then do it again."

Sayuri took the pen and bent over to write.

Watching her, Kagami suddenly recalled the first time he'd met her in the Manga Research Club.

Back then, she'd been engrossed in a copy of Comic Kairakuten, and when he startled her, she'd let out a strange yelp.

Back then she'd been a hopeless case of a girl who did nothing but draw BL doujinshi all day and cared nothing for schoolwork.

Now, here she was, working diligently through math problems.

Time really was a strange thing.

"Done!"

Sayuri held the scratch paper up to him, her face all but shouting "praise me."

Kagami took the paper and read it through from start to finish.

"All correct."

"Yay!"

Sayuri threw her hands up, nearly bouncing out of her chair.

"Don't celebrate too soon."

Kagami pulled a workbook out of his bag, flipped to a page, and set it in front of her.

"These are mock questions for next month's monthly exam. Take a look at the format first."

Sayuri's smile froze.

"Weren't we only supposed to do the summer homework?!"

"Once you finish the summer homework, you prep for the monthly exam. After the monthly exam comes midterms. After midterms comes the diagnostic test. And after the diagnostic test—"

Kagami paused, smiling at her.

"—comes the entrance exams."

Sayuri slumped onto the desk with a wail.

"I don't want to take university exams anymore..."

"I want to draw doujinshi with Akane and Sonoko forever."

"Doesn't that count anymore?"

Kagami tilted his head and asked her with a smile.

Sayuri looked up at him.

"Can't we still draw together even without going to university?"

"Without university, you won't share the same experiences. Without shared experiences, you won't fit into the same circle. And once you're outside the circle, you get left behind."

"You wouldn't want to see Akane and Sonoko suddenly forming an unbreakable bond with some other circle, would you, Sayuri~"

Sayuri fell silent.

"Don't worry, you're just a little lazy, that's all."

"That's what I'm here for."

"And besides, the groundwork from your earlier tutoring is solid."

"You've been doing great."

"So you'll catch up with Akane and Sonoko in no time."

Kagami said, smiling as he patted her head.

"Then... then I'll do my best."

"So please pat my head more, Kagami."

In mid-to-late September, Shimizu Nayotake returned to school.

That morning, the moment Kagami walked into the classroom, he spotted her at once.

She sat by the window in her summer uniform, hair loose over her shoulders.

Her complexion looked much healthier than before, a faint flush of color even showing in her cheeks.

"Nayotake."

Kagami walked over and sat down beside her.

Nayotake turned, and seeing it was him, the corner of her mouth curved slightly.

Everyone had gone to see her the day she was discharged, but she'd needed more time at home to rest and be monitored.

Only now was she fully recovered enough to return to school.

At noon, Kagami took a bento out of his desk as usual.

"Yukinoshita Shizuku made this. She said you'd probably skip proper meals again."

Nayotake looked at the bag for a moment, then reached out to take it.

"Thank her for me."

"Tell her yourself."

Nayotake nodded.

The two of them sat facing each other, eating.

Just then, Seika Ijichi came over with her own bento.

But before everyone could open their bentos and chat as they used to,

she seemed to have something on her mind, glancing between Kagami and Nayotake, hesitating to speak.

"Something wrong?"

Kagami asked outright.

"Um..."

Seika said, a little embarrassed.

"It's just..."

"I was wondering if Nayotake could tutor me."

Nayotake blinked, surprised.

"Tutor you?"

"Yeah. I skipped a whole year of school, and then I've been busy with the band ever since, so my grades never caught up."

Seika grew more embarrassed as she spoke.

Her days as a truant delinquent girl had become an embarrassing chapter of her past.

But watching everyone else buckle down this term,

she'd started to feel she should try for university too.

"I just don't know how you're doing health-wise these days."

"If it's not possible, you don't have to push yourself."

"Why don't you just come tutor with Sayuri at the Manga Research Club?"

"It's all the same teaching anyway."

Kagami said with a smile.

He'd never expected even Seika would start thinking about university.

Kagami felt a warm, almost fatherly satisfaction.

Seika glanced at Kagami, looking like she wanted to say something but held it back.

Actually, she'd originally meant to ask Kagami himself to tutor her.

She'd once secretly asked Sayuri what it was like being tutored by him.

Sayuri had described his tutoring as more painful than the deepest hell.

And Kagami-as-tutor as more devilish than the devil himself.

That had killed the idea for Seika, who wasn't fond of studying to begin with.

So she'd turned to Nayotake instead, whose grades were just as good.

"If it's just tutoring... it should be fine."

Just as Seika was trying to think of how to decline Kagami's hellish tutoring regime,

Nayotake's answer came like a pardon from execution.

Seika let out a breath of relief,

and quickly clasped Nayotake's hands in thanks.

On a weekend at the end of September, the tutoring sessions moved from school to Kagami's apartment.

Saturday afternoon, the doorbell rang.

Kagami opened the door to find Sayuri standing there with a huge canvas bag stuffed full of textbooks and workbooks.

"Why'd you bring so much stuff?"

"Didn't you tell me to bring everything I'd need for this stretch?"

Sayuri walked in, changed into slippers, and headed straight for the living room.

"I don't want to keep running back and forth."

Right behind her came Seika Ijichi, Hiroi Kikuri, and PA-ko.

A little while later, the doorbell rang again.

This time it was Yukinoshita Shizuku and Shizuka Hiratsuka.

Yukinoshita Shizuku had just gotten off work at the convenience store, with Hiratsuka trailing behind her,

carrying a convenience-store bag stuffed with drinks and snacks.

"Shizu, aren't you here to study?"

Kagami eyed the bag of snacks in her hands.

"Even studying needs snacks."

Hiratsuka said, sounding perfectly justified.

"Besides, I'm here as a teaching assistant, not a student."

The story behind that went back a while.

Since Nayotake had stopped taking part-time work recently, she'd been spending her after-school hours in the Light Music Club helping Seika Ijichi study.

Then Hiroi Kikuri and PA-ko, watching Seika work so hard,

figured that with normal club activities off the table anyway

and the Livehouse plans clearly on hold,

they might as well get the pain over with early rather than late, and join the tutoring too.

Catching up on their studies now would mean less suffering come third year, right?

So Hiroi Kikuri and PA-ko had roped Yukinoshita Shizuku into tutoring them too.

And Hiratsuka, watching all three Light Music Club members getting tutored one-on-one while she was the only one left out, figured what else could she do but join in?

So she joined the tutoring sessions too.

Though Hiratsuka often skipped class and tuned out lessons, seeming much like Seika on the surface,

her actual foundation turned out to be surprisingly solid, and she picked everything back up with just a little effort.

So little by little, she went from being a tutoring student to becoming an assistant helping Yukinoshita Shizuku and Nayotake teach.

Once Nayotake arrived as well,

"All right, let's begin."

Kagami clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention.

"Ask if you have questions. Don't just sit on them."

Everyone gathered on a plush new rug specially laid out in the living room.

A wide low table sat on the rug.

On it were textbooks, notebooks, workbooks, a plate of strawberry daifuku, and several steaming cups of cocoa.

Yukino padded out from a corner, jumped onto Kagami's lap, curled into a ball, and began purring contentedly.

Everyone gradually settled into their study rhythm.

The tutoring lasted the whole afternoon.

During the afternoon break, as everyone wondered what to eat — since they still had the evening session ahead —

Hayase Kinue brought out cookies she'd baked herself.

Tsukuyomi Komoe and Douraku Utage, for their part, brought a stack of internal entrance-exam questions from various universities that they'd somehow gotten hold of.

Even though Japan already had a unified exam system, similar to the sort one might sit for the University of Tokyo,

top universities still required, beyond the unified exam score, a separate school-specific entrance exam.

So every year the school ran a survey of students' university plans.

Students planning to go on to university basically had to settle on their target school by the second half of second year.

By third year, they'd go straight into cram schools dedicated to that specific university's entrance exam.

Tsukuyomi Komoe, Douraku Utage, and Hayase Kinue sat together on the sofa in the corner of the living room, sipping tea as they watched the young people bury themselves in their studies.

"Ah, youth."

Douraku Utage said, legs crossed, a cup of black tea in hand.

"Watching them makes me feel young again myself."

"You're not old to begin with."

Hayase Kinue said with a laugh.

"It just reminds me of our own cram-school days, back when we were prepping for entrance exams."

Tsukuyomi Komoe took a bite of her cookie.

In October, the weather in Tokyo finally turned cool.

The tutoring sessions had been going on for over a month now.

Every weekend, Kagami's apartment turned into a makeshift classroom.

The rug stayed piled with textbooks and workbooks, and the fridge was always stocked with drinks and snacks.

Under Kagami's "high-pressure regime," Sayuri showed the most obvious improvement.

One afternoon after school, in the Manga Research Club room.

Kagami sat by the window, flipping through a university entrance-exam reference book.

Sayuri sat across from him, an English workbook open in front of her.

She chewed her pen cap, brow slightly furrowed, deep in thought.

"Kagami."

"Mm."

"Is there... anything you want?"

Kagami looked up from the page at her.

"It's just..."

Sayuri's gaze drifted toward the window.

"You don't need to get me anything."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not tutoring you to get a present."

"I know."

Sayuri's voice dropped.

"But I want to thank you. Is that not allowed?"

Kagami looked at her.

The tips of her ears had turned faintly red, her fingers absently rubbing the corner of the workbook.

"Then treat me to a meal."

After the tutoring session ended, Kagami and Sayuri went to a nearby family restaurant.

"You've made a lot of progress lately."

Kagami said with a smile, taking a sip of water.

"Really?"

Sayuri's eyes lit up.

"Yeah."

"At this rate, next January's unified exam should be no problem."

"Then..."

Sayuri hesitated.

"...next January's unified exam should be 'no problem'?"

Kagami set down his cup and laughed.

"Sayuri, look at who your master is."

"You're scary strong right now!"

"Forget the unified exam. Forget Keio."

"Why not try for the University of Tokyo's Science Course III?"

"Come join me at the University of Tokyo?"

"You're so mean, Kagami."

"You're only taking the Humanities program yourself."

"But you want me to go for Science III!"

"It just feels like a waste for you to work this hard and only end up at Keio."

"If I follow you to the University of Tokyo, my tutoring difficulty's definitely going up a level!"

"I'm fine where I am. No thank you!"

Kagami's eyes lit up.

"Oh? Mixing in English now, are we?"

"Sure you won't reconsider?"

"No, no, no!"

Sayuri flailed her twin ponytails.

When the food finally arrived,

and the two of them were halfway through the meal,

Sayuri suddenly asked,

"Kagami."

"Mm."

"Do you think, after graduation, we'll still be like this?"

Kagami set down his knife and fork, looking her in the eye.

"Of course we will."

"Why?"

"Because you're Sayuri."

Kagami said with a smile.

"You're the type who, once you decide on something, never lets go. Whether it's drawing, or... something else."

Sayuri stared at him for a few seconds, then lowered her head and poked at the noodles on her plate with her fork.

"You really do know how to talk."

"I'm a writer, after all."

Sayuri didn't argue.

She thought, maybe this was the life she wanted.

Being together with everyone.

Being with Kagami.

Forever and ever.

____

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